Downlink measurement design in new radio

ABSTRACT

Measurement modeling and filtering may include configurable cell quality derivation method is used for multi-beam based NR networks; a common measurement model that considers different characteristics of the two measurement signals, NR synchronization signal and additional reference signal; and a multi-level measurement filtering approach that handles different mobility scenarios in an NR network. Measurement configuration and procedures may include a measurement gap design during which UE may use to perform measurements for beam sweeping based NR networks; a group of triggering events that may be used to trigger UE mobility management in an NR network; a content format that may be used for the transmission of UE measurement report; a measurement object design (the object on which a UE may perform the measurements) to reduce UE measurement overhead and cost; and a downlink measurement based inter-cell handover procedure that may be used in an NR network.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/325,566 filed May 20, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/495,521 filed Sep. 19, 2019 (now U.S. Pat. No.11,044,650) which is the National Stage Application of InternationalPatent Application No. PCT/US2018/024031 filed Mar. 23, 2018, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/475,360riled Mar. 23, 2017 and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/520,0175 filed Jun. 15, 2017 the disclosures of each are herebyincorporated by reference as if set forth in their entirety herein.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates to wireless communications using multiple beams,such as those described in 3GPP TS 36.300 and TS 36.331.

SUMMARY

A wireless apparatus, such as a user equipment (UE) receives beammeasurement configuration information from another network node, such asa gNB, to facilitate adaptation to changing multi-beam environments. Theconfiguration may pertain to beam-specific measurements of a pluralityof beams of one or more wireless cells. The apparatus may then performbeam-specific measurements according to the configuration and derive,based on the beam-specific measurements, a cell quality.

The beam-specific measurements may include, for example, measuring areference signal received power, a reference signal received quality, ora signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio. The plurality of beams mayinclude a new radio synchronization signal or a channel stateinformation-reference signal, for example.

The configuration may include various information pertaining to how manybeams are measured, when they are measured, and how they are assessed.For example, the configuration may indicate a maximum or minimum numberof beams to be measured, and criteria for inclusion of beams in themeasurement group. Alternatively, a cell quality assessment may bedetermined by the character of a single “best” beam, for example, where“best” may be stipulated by the configuration as being the strongest orhighest quality signal, or a composite measurement based on acombination of signal strength and quality, for instance.

Such beam-specific measurements may be performed automatically orconditionally on the beams of a primary cell, a secondary cell, or allneighbor cells of the apparatus. For example, measurement of the beamsof one or more neighbor cells may be performed only if the cell qualityof a primary cell is below a threshold.

A cell may be arranged to provide a gap pattern to facilitatemeasurement by the apparatus of certain signals, e.g., referencesignals, in absence of interference from other signals, e.g., downloadand upload traffic. The gap pattern may be included in the measurementconfiguration information. The gap pattern may take a variety forms. Forexample, the set of measurement gaps may be a pattern of gaps in burstseries of a serving cell including offsets between gaps that arevariable amount or are incremented for each subsequent gap, or both.

The apparatus may be arranged to provide measurement reports back to theserver or TRP, for example, based on various triggering events. The formand content of the reports, as well as the triggering events, may beadjusted via the measurement configuration information, for example.

A second measurement configuration may be sent to the apparatus on thebasis of a measurement report. For example, the second configuration mayadjust the gap pattern, which beams are measured, which cells aremeasured, the criteria for evaluation of beams, measurement or reportingtriggering events, or the method for deriving an assessment of cellquality.

A measurement report may include information pertaining to anyparticular beam or group of beams. For example, information regarding anew radio synchronization signal or a channel stateinformation-reference signal, or both, may be included.

A measurement report may include a beam index, for example, or a timeindex of a synchronization signal block. A beam index may be orderedaccording to a strength of a measurement quantity. Reported beammeasurements may also include the beam measurement quantity.

The apparatus may be arranged to receive a handover command including arandom access channel configuration, wherein the random access channelconfiguration comprising physical random access channel resourcesassociated with one or more of the beams included in the secondmeasurement report.

Using such techniques, a configurable cell quality derivation method formulti-beam based NR networks may be achieved, as well as a commonmeasurement model that considers different characteristics of the NRsynchronization signal and an additional reference signal, for example.This allows a multi-level measurement filtering approach that handlesdifferent mobility scenarios in an NR network.

Similarly, a measurement gap design during which UE may be used toperform measurements for beam sweeping based NR networks. An NRMeasGapConfig IE may be used to signal the NR gap pattern configuration.A group of triggering events may be used to trigger UE mobilitymanagement in an NR network. An NR MeasurementReport message andMeasResults IE may be used to report NR measurement results, forexample. A measurement object design, for an object on which a UE mayperform the measurements, may be used to reduce UE measurement overheadand cost. An NR MeasConfig IE may be used to signal the measurementconfiguration. A downlink measurement based inter-cell handoverprocedure may be used in an NR network.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore,the claimed subject matter is not limited to limitations that solve anyor all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description,given by way of example in conjunction with accompanying drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 is a state diagram that shows an example user equipment (UE)state machine and state transitions.

FIG. 2 is a call flow diagram that shows an example high level conceptof on-demand SI provisioning.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram that shows an example a measurement modeladopted in LTE.

FIG. 4 illustrates a number of example inter-frequency andintra-frequency measurements scenarios.

FIG. 5 is a timing diagram that shows an example SS burst series with asingle beam transmitted during each SS Block.

FIG. 6 is a beam diagram that shows an example of cell coverage withsector beams and multiple high gain narrow beams.

FIG. 7 is a beam diagram that shows an example intra-frequencymeasurement gap issue.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram that shows an example multi-beam multi-levelmobility measurement model for NR networks.

FIG. 9 illustrates example measurement sample inputs of a Layer 1 filterfor NR-SS and an additional RS.

FIG. 10 is a timing diagram that shows an example a gap pattern forsynchronous SS burst series configuration.

FIG. 11 is a timing diagram that shows an example asynchronous SS burstseries configuration.

FIG. 12 is a beam diagram that shows an example asynchronous deploymentwith known angular offset between cells.

FIG. 13 is a beam diagram that shows an example case where a UE mayexperience frequent ping-pong inter-gNB and inter-cell TRP/beamswitching if additional RS only contains beam identity.

FIG. 14 is a diagram that shows an example of measurement triggeringevents for a UE in different states.

FIG. 15 is a call flow diagram that shows an example signaling flow ofNR inter-cell handover.

FIG. 16 is a diagram of an example Graphical User Interface (GUI).

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of an example alternate NR measurement model.

FIG. 18 is a timing diagram of an example alternate gap pattern for asynchronous SS burst series configuration.

FIG. 19 is a timing diagram of an alternate gap pattern for anasynchronous SS burst series configuration.

FIG. 20 illustrates one embodiment of an example communications systemin which the methods and apparatuses described and claimed herein may beembodiment.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram of an example apparatus or device configuredfor wireless communications in accordance with the embodimentsillustrated herein.

FIG. 22 is a system diagram of the RAN and the core network according toan embodiment.

FIG. 23 is a system diagram of the RAN and the core network according toanother embodiment.

FIG. 24 is a system diagram of the RAN and the core network according toyet another embodiment.

FIG. 25 is a block diagram of an example computing system in which oneor more apparatuses of the communications networks illustrated in FIGS.20, 22, 23, and 24 may be embodied.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

TABLE 1 Abbreviations ARQ Automatic Repeat Request AS Access StratumCMAS Commercial Mobile Alert System CN Core Network C-RNTI CellRadio-Network Temporary Identifier CSI-RS Channel StateInformation-Reference Signals DL Downlink DL-SCH Downlink Shared ChannelDRX Discontinuous Reception EAB Extended Access Barring eMBB enhancedMobile Broadband eNB Evolved Node B ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami WarningSystem E-UTRA Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access E-UTRAN EvolvedUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access Network FDD Frequency Division DuplexGERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network GSM Global System for Mobilecommunications HARQ Hybrid ARQ HF-NR High Frequency-New Radio HNB HomeeNB IE Information Element KPI Key Performance Indicators LTE Long termEvolution MAC Medium Access Control MBMS Multimedia Broadcast MulticastService MCL Maximum Coupling Loss MIB Master Information Block MTCMachine-Type Communications mMTC Massive Machine Type Communication NASNon-access Stratum NR New Radio NR-SS New Radio Synchronization SignalPCell Primary Cell OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing PCPaging Cycle PCCH Physical Common Control Channel PCell Primary CellPDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel PF Paging Frame PHY PhysicalLayer PO Paging Occasion PRACH Physical Random Access Channel PRBPhysical Resource Block P-RNTI Paging Radio-Network Temporary IdentifierPSCell Primary Secondary Cell QoS Quality of Service RACH Random AccessChannel RAN Radio Access Network RAR Random Access Response RAT RadioAccess Technology RRC Radio Resource Control RSRP Reference SignalReceived Power RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality SAI Service AreaIdentities SC-PTM Single Cell Point to Multipoint SFN System FrameNumber SI System Information SIB System Information Block SINRSignal-To-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio SMARTER Feasibility Study on NewServices and Markets Technology SS Synchronization Signal sTAG SecondaryTiming Advance Group TRP Transmission and Reception Point UE UserEquipment UL Uplink UL-SCH Uplink Shared Channel UTRAN UniversalTerrestrial Radio Access Network URLLC Ultra-Reliable and Low LatencyCommunications UTC Coordinated Universal Time

The 3GPP TR 38.804 Study on New Radio Access Technology Radio InterfaceProtocol Aspects, Release 14, V 1.0.0, describes a number of RRCprotocol states, which are illustrated in FIG. 1 .

An RRC_IDLE state includes cell re-selection mobility, with paging isinitiated by core network. The paging area is managed by the corenetwork.

An RRC_INACTIVE state includes cell re-selection mobility. A corenetwork—NR RAN connection for both control and user planes is beenestablished for the UE. The UE AS context is stored in at least one gNBand the UE. Paging is initiated by the NR RAN. RAN-based notificationarea is managed by NR RAN. The NR RAN knows the RAN-based notificationarea to which the UE belongs.

In an RRC_CONNECTED state, the UE has an NR RRC connection. The UE hasan AS context in NR. NR RAN knows the cell which the UE belongs to.Transfer of unicast data to/from the UE. Network controlled mobility,e.g., handover within NR and to/from the E-UTRAN.

FIG. 1 further shows supported state transitions between these RRCstates. A transition from RRC_IDLE to RRC_CONNECTED may follow, forexample, a “connection setup” procedure (e.g., request, setup,complete). A transition from RRC_CONNECTED to RRC_IDLE, may follow, forexample, a “connection release” procedure. A transition fromRRC_CONNECTED to RRC_INACTIVE, may follow, for example, a “connectioninactivation” procedure. A transition from RRC_INACTIVE toRRC_CONNECTED, may follow, for example, a “connection activation”procedure.

System information is divided into “Minimum SI” and “Other SI”. MinimumSI is always present and broadcast periodically. The Minimum SIcomprises basic information required for initial access to a cell, andinformation for acquiring any Other SI broadcast periodically, orprovisioned on an on-demand basis, e.g., scheduling information. OtherSI encompasses system information not broadcast in the Minimum SI. TheOther SI is optional, and may either be broadcast separately, forexample, or provisioned in dedicated signaling, either triggered by thenetwork or upon request from the UE as illustrated in FIG. 2 .

Section 10.6 in 3GPP TS 36.300 defines the measurement model currentlyused in LTE. This model is illustrated in FIG. 3 . The signals at PointA are measurements (samples) internal to the physical layer. Layer 1filtering is internal filtering of the inputs measured at Point A. Theexact manner in which observations are filtered and processed to producemeasurements, e.g., in the physical layer, is implementation dependent.Layer 1 filtering is not constrained by the LTE standard.

The signals at Point B are measurements reported by Layer 1 to Layer 3after Layer 1 filtering.

Layer 3 filtering is performed on the measurements provided at Point B.The behavior of the Layer 3 filters are standardized and theconfiguration of the Layer 3 filters is provided by RRC signaling. Thefiltering reporting period at Point C equals one measurement period atB.

The signals at Point C are measurements after processing in the Layer 3filter. The reporting rate is identical to the reporting rate at PointB. These measurements are used as input for one or more evaluation ofreporting criteria.

Reporting criteria are evaluated to check whether any measurementreporting is necessary at Point D. The evaluation may be based on morethan one flow of measurements at reference Point C, e.g., to comparebetween different measurements. This is illustrated in FIG. 3 by theinputs at Points C and C. The UE may evaluate the reporting criteria atleast every time a new measurement result is reported at Point C or C.The reporting criteria are standardized and the configuration isprovided by RRC signaling for UE measurements.

The signals are Point D include measurement report information, such asmessages, sent on the radio interface.

Layer 1 filtering may introduce a certain level of measurementaveraging. Exactly how and when the UE performs the requiredmeasurements will be implementation specific up to the output at Point Bfulfils the performance requirements set in 3GPP TS 36.133. Layer 3filtering and parameters used are specified in 3GPP TS 36.331, and donot introduce any delay in the sample availability between Points B andC. The measurement at Points C and C′ are the input used in the eventevaluation.

As specified in 3GPP TS 36.331, in LTE the UE reports measurementinformation in accordance with the measurement configuration as providedby the E-UTRAN. The E-UTRAN provides the measurement configurationapplicable for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED by means of dedicated signaling,e.g., using the RRCConnectionReconfiguration or RRCConnectionResumemessage.

The UE may be requested to perform the following types of measurements:intra-frequency measurements, e.g., measurements at the downlink carrierfrequencies of the serving cells; inter-frequency measurements, e.g.,measurements at frequencies that differ from any of the downlink carrierfrequencies of the serving cells; inter-RAT measurements of UTRAfrequencies; inter-RAT measurements of GERAN frequencies; and inter-RATmeasurements of CDMA2000 HRPD or CDMA2000 1×RTT or WLAN frequencies.

The measurement configuration may include a number of parameters, suchas measurement objects. Measurement objects are objects on which the UEmay perform the measurements. For intra-frequency and inter-frequencymeasurements, a measurement object may be a single E-UTRA carrierfrequency. Associated with this carrier frequency, the E-UTRAN mayconfigure a list of cell specific offsets, e.g., a list of ‘blacklisted’cells and a list of ‘whitelisted’ cells. Blacklisted cells are notconsidered in event evaluation or measurement reporting. For inter-RATWLAN measurements, a measurement object is a set of WLAN identifiers andoptionally a set of W LAN frequencies.

Some measurements only concern a single cell, such as measurements usedto report neighbouring cell system information, a PCell UE Rx-Tx timedifference, or a pair of cells. e.g., SSTD measurements between thePCell and the PSCell.

The measurement configuration parameters may include reportingconfigurations. The purpose of a measurement report is to transfermeasurement results from the UE to the E-UTRAN. The UE may initiate thisprocedure only after successful security activation. A reportingconfiguration may include, for example, reporting criteria and reportingformat information. A reporting criterion may be a criterion thattriggers the UE to send a measurement report, for example. This may beperiodical or a single event description, for instance. Reporting formatinformation may include, for example, quantities that the UE includes inthe measurement report and associated information, e.g., number of cellsto report.

The measurement configuration parameters may include measurementidentities, for example, where each measurement identity links onemeasurement object with one reporting configuration. By configuringmultiple measurement identities, it is possible to link more than onemeasurement object to the same reporting configuration, as well as tolink more than one reporting configuration to the same measurementobject. The measurement identity is used as a reference number in themeasurement report.

The measurement configuration parameters may include quantityconfigurations, for example, with one quantity configuration isconfigured per RAT type. The quantity configuration defines themeasurement quantities and associated filtering used for all eventevaluation and related reporting of that measurement type. One filtermay be configured per measurement quantity, for example.

The measurement configuration parameters may include measurement gaps,e.g., periods that the UE may use to perform measurements where no UL orDL transmissions are scheduled. Table 2 enumerates example gap patternconfigurations that may be supported by a UE.

TABLE 2 Gap Pattern Configurations supported by the UE Minimum availabletime for inter- Measurement frequency and inter- Gap Measurement GapRepetition RAT measurements Pattern Gap Length Period during 480 msperiod Measurement Id (MGL, ms) (MGRP, ms) (Tinter1, ms) Purpose 0 6 4060 Inter-Frequency E- UTRAN FDD and TDD, UTRAN FDD, GERAN, LCR TDD,HRPD, CDMA2000 1x 1 6 80 30 Inter-Frequency E- UTRAN FDD and TDD, UTRANFDD, GERAN, LCR TDD, HRPD, CDMA2000 1x

The E-UTRAN may, for example, configure a single measurement object fora given frequency, except for the WLAN. In some cases, it is notpossible to configure two or more measurement objects for the samefrequency with different associated parameters, e.g., with differentoffsets or blacklists. The E-UTRAN may configure multiple instances ofthe same event, e.g., by configuring two reporting configurations withdifferent thresholds.

The UE may maintain a single measurement object list, a single reportingconfiguration list, and a single measurement identities list. Themeasurement object list includes measurement objects that are specifiedper RAT type. The measurement object list and may includeintra-frequency objects such as objects corresponding to the servingfrequencies. The measurement object list and may include inter-frequencyobjects, and inter-RAT objects. The reporting configuration list mayinclude E-UTRA and inter-RAT reporting configurations. Any measurementobject may be linked to any reporting configuration of the same RATtype. Some reporting configurations may not be linked to a measurementobject. Likewise, some measurement objects may not be linked to areporting configuration.

The measurement procedures may draw distinctions between serving cells,listed cells, and detected cells. Serving cells may include the PCelland one or more SCells, if configured for a UE supporting CA. Listedcells are cells listed within the measurement objects or, for inter-RATWLAN, the WLANs matching the WLAN identifiers configured in themeasurement object or the WLAN the UE is connected to. Detected cellsare cells that are not listed within the measurement objects but aredetected by the UE on the carrier frequencies indicated by themeasurement objects.

As specified in TS 36.300, measurements to be performed by a LTE UE forintra/inter-frequency mobility may be controlled by E-UTRAN, e.g., usingbroadcast or dedicated control. In RRC_IDLE state, a UE may follow themeasurement parameters defined for cell reselection specified by theE-UTRAN broadcast. The use of dedicated measurement control for RRC_IDLEstate is possible through the provision of UE specific priorities. Seesub-clause 10.2.4 of TS 36.300. In RRC_CONNECTED state, a UE may followthe measurement configurations specified by RRC directed from theE-UTRAN, e.g., as in UTRAN MEASUREMENT CONTROL.

In RRC_IDLE and RRC_CONNECTED sates, the UE may be configured to monitorone or more UTRA or E-UTRA carriers according to reduced performancerequirements as specified in TS 36.133.

For CSI-RS based discovery signals measurements, herein the term “cell”refers to the transmission point of the concerned cell.

Intra-frequency neighbor cell measurements are neighbor cellmeasurements performed by the UE are intra-frequency measurements whenthe current and target cell operates on the same carrier frequency.Inter-frequency neighbor cell measurements are neighbor cellmeasurements performed by the UE are inter-frequency measurements whenthe neighbor cell operates on a different carrier frequency, compared tothe current cell.

Whether a measurement is non-gap-assisted or gap-assisted depends on theUE's capability and the current operating frequency. In non-gap-assistedscenarios, a UE may be able to carry out such measurements withoutmeasurement gaps. In gap-assisted scenarios, the UE should not beassumed to be able to carry out such measurements without measurementgaps. The UE determines whether a particular cell measurement needs tobe performed in a transmission/reception gap and the scheduler needs toknow whether gaps are needed.

Many inter-frequency and intra-frequency measurement scenarios arepossible, such as the Scenarios A-G of FIG. 4 .

In Scenario A of FIG. 4 , the same carrier frequency and cell bandwidthsare used. This is an intra-frequency scenario without a measurement gap.

In Scenario B, the same carrier frequency is used, but the bandwidth ofthe target cell smaller than the bandwidth of the current cell. This isan intra-frequency scenario without a measurement gap.

In Scenario C, the same carrier frequency is used, but the bandwidth ofthe target cell larger than the bandwidth of the current cell. This isan intra-frequency scenario without a measurement gap.

In Scenario D, different carrier frequencies are used, and the bandwidthof the target cell smaller than the bandwidth of the current cell. Thebandwidth of the target cell is within bandwidth of the current cell.This is an inter-frequency scenario which uses a measurement.

Scenario E involves different carrier frequencies, where the bandwidthof the target cell larger than the bandwidth of the current cell, andbandwidth of the current cell is within bandwidth of the target cell.This is an inter-frequency scenario using a measurement gap.

In Scenario F, different carrier frequencies are used with andnon-overlapping bandwidths. This is an inter-frequency scenario using ameasurement gap.

In Scenario G, the same carrier frequency is used, but the operatingfrequency of the bandwidth reduced low complexity (BL) UE or the UE inEnhanced Coverage is not guaranteed to be aligned with the centerfrequency of the current cell. This is an intra-frequency scenario,which uses a measurement gap.

Measurement gaps patterns may be configured and activated by RRC.

When CA is configured, the “current cell” may be any serving cell of theconfigured set of serving cells. For intra-frequency neighbor cellmeasurements this means that neighbor cell measurements performed by theUE are intra-frequency measurements when one of the serving cells of theconfigured set and the target cell operates on the same carrierfrequency. The UE may be able to carry out such measurements withoutmeasurement gaps.

For inter-frequency neighbor cell measurements, neighbor cellmeasurements performed by the UE are inter-frequency measurements whenthe neighbor cell operates on a different carrier frequency than anyserving cell of the configured set. The UE should not be assumed to beable to carry out such measurements without measurement gaps.

When DC is configured, the configured set of serving cells includes allthe cells from MCG and SCG as for CA. The measurement procedure ofserving cells belonging to the SeNB may not be impacted due to RLF ofSeNB. Further, a common gap for the MeNB and the SeNB may be applied.There is only a single measurement gap configuration for the UE which iscontrolled and informed by the MeNB. Further, when DC is configured, theUE determines the starting point of the measurement gap based on theSFN, subframe number, and subframe boundaries of the MCG serving cells.

In NR, a Synchronization Signal (SS) block may be defined as a unit ofbeam sweeping time during which the network may transmit synchronizationsignals to a UE. An SS burst may be defined as a set of 1 or more SSblocks and an SS burst series may be defined as a set of one or more SSbursts. An SS Burst Series is shown in FIG. 5 , in this example, thesystem transmits one beam during each SS block. There are M SS blocks ineach SS burst and L SS bursts in the SS burst series.

Currently, 3GPP standardization's efforts are underway to design theframework for beamformed access. The characteristics of the wirelesschannel at higher frequencies are significantly different from thesub-60 Hz channel that LTE is currently deployed on. The key challengeof designing the new Radio Access Technology (RAT) for higherfrequencies will be in overcoming the larger path-loss at higherfrequency bands. In addition to this larger path-loss, the higherfrequencies are subject to an unfavorable scattering environment due toblockage caused by poor diffraction. Therefore, MIMO/beamforming isessential in guaranteeing sufficient signal level at the receiver end.See, e.g., 3GPP R1-164013 Framework for Beamformed Access.

Relying solely on MIMO digital precoding used by digital beamforming tocompensate for the additional path-loss in higher frequencies seems notenough to provide similar coverage as below 6 GHz. Thus, the use ofanalog beamforming for achieving additional gain may be an alternativein conjunction with digital beamforming. A sufficiently narrow beamshould be formed with lots of antenna elements, which is likely to bequite different from the one assumed for the LTE evaluations. For largebeamforming gain, the beam-width correspondingly tends to be reduced,and hence the beam with the large directional antenna gain cannot coverthe whole horizontal sector area specifically in a three-sectorconfiguration. The limiting factors of the number of concurrent highgain beams include the cost and complexity of the transceiverarchitecture.

Multiple transmissions in time domain with narrow coverage beams steeredto cover different serving areas are necessary. Inherently, the analogbeam of a subarray may be steered toward a single direction at the timeresolution of an OFDM symbol or any appropriate time interval unitdefined for the purpose of beam steering across different serving areaswithin the cell, and hence the number of subarrays determines the numberof beam directions and the corresponding coverage on each OFDM symbol ortime interval unit defined for the purpose of beams steering. In someliterature, the provision of multiple narrow coverage beams for thispurpose has been called “beam sweeping”. For analog and hybridbeamforming, the beam sweeping seems to be essential to provide thebasic coverage in NR. This concept is illustrated in FIG. 6 where thecoverage of a sector level cell is achieved with sectors beams andmultiple high gain narrow beams. Also, for analog and hybrid beamformingwith massive MIMO, multiple transmissions in time domain with narrowcoverage beams steered to cover different serving areas is essential tocover the whole coverage areas within a serving cell in NR.

One concept closely related to beam sweeping is the concept of beampairing which is used to select the best beam pair between a UE and itsserving cell, which may be used for control signaling or datatransmission. For the downlink transmission, a beam pair will consist ofUE RX beam and NR-Node TX beam. For uplink transmission, a beam pairwill consist of UE TX beam and NR-Node RX beam.

A related concept is beam training, which may be used for beamrefinement. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 6 , a coarser sectorbeamforming may be applied during the beam sweeping and sector beampairing procedure. A beam training may then follow where for example theantenna weights vector is refined, followed by the pairing of high gainnarrow beams between the UE and NR-Node.

In NR, under 3GPP TR 38.804, beam management includes a set of L1/L2procedures to acquire and maintain a set of one or more TRPs and/or UEbeams that may be used for DL and UL transmission/reception,encompassing a least beam determination, measurement, reporting, andsweeping. Beam determinations are made for TRPs or UEs to select of itsown Tx/Rx beams. Beam measurement involves TRPs or UEs to measuringcharacteristics of received beamformed signals. Beam reporting is wherethe UE to reports information such as a property/quality of beamformedsignals based on beam measurement. Beam sweeping: is an operationcovering a spatial area, with beams transmitted and/or received during atime interval in a predetermined way.

Several DL L1/L2 beam management procedures may be supported within oneor multiple TRPs. Procedure P-1 may be used to enable UE measurement ondifferent TRP Tx beams to support selection of TRP Tx beams/UE Rx beams.For beamforming at a TRP, Procedure P-1 typically includes anintra/inter-TRP Tx beam sweep from a set of different beams. Forbeamforming at UE, Procedure P-1 typically includes a UE Rx beam sweepfrom a set of different beams.

Procedure P-2 may be used to enable UE measurement on different TRP Txbeams to change inter/intra-TRP Tx beams from a possibly smaller set ofbeams for beam refinement than in P-1. P-2 may be a special case of P-1.

Procedure P-3 may be used to enable UE measurement on the same TRP Txbeam to change UE Rx beam in the case UE uses beamforming.

At least network triggered aperiodic beam reporting is supported underP-1, P-2, and P-3 related operations.

For downlink, NR supports beam management with and without beam-relatedindication. When beam-related indication is provided, informationpertaining to UE-side beamforming/receiving procedure used for datareception may be indicated through QCL to UE.

Based on an RS used for beam management transmitted by a TRP, a UE mayreport information associated with a number, N, of selected Tx beams. TR38.804 describes aspects of measurement for New Radio Access Technology.For the cell level mobility driven by RRC, the baseline of the RRMmeasurement framework for DL is the one specified for LTE, includingmeasurement object, measurement ID, and reporting configuration, asspecified in TS 36.331. The DL RRM measurement may be performed based ona common framework regardless of network and UE beam configurations,e.g., number of beams. As for the event triggered reporting, at leastEvents A1 to A6 specified for LTE are to be supported in NR, withpotential modifications. Other events may also be studied for NR.Measurement reports may contain at least cell level measurement results.

A UE in RRC_CONNECTED should be able to perform RRM measurements onalways on an idle RS, e.g., NR-PSS/SSS, and/or CSI-RS. The gNB should beable to configure RRM measurements via dedicated signaling to beperformed on CSI-RS and/or idle RS. The event triggered reporting may beconfigured for NR-PSS/SSS and for CSI-RS for RRM measurements. At least,Even A1 to A6 may be configured for NR-PSS/SSS.

In multi-beam operations, a UE in RRC_CONNECTED state may measure one ormore individual DL beams. The gNB may have the mechanisms to considerthe measurement results of those DL beams for handover. This mechanismis useful to trigger inter-gNB handover and to optimize handoverping-pong and failure. The UE should be able to distinguish between thebeams from its serving cell and the beams from neighbor cells. The UEshould be able to learn whether a beam is coming from its serving cell.Cell level signaling quality for the DL RRM measurement may be derivedfrom multiple beams, if detected. Possible options to derive cell levelsignaling quality may include selecting best beam, N best beams, alldetected beams or beams above a threshold. Other options are notprecluded. For example, the DL RRM measurement may be made on a on asingle beam.

CSI-RS is an example of additional RSs that may be beamformed inRRC-CONNECTED mode in addition to the always-on idle mode RSs.

RSRPs may be measured from the IDLE mode RS. One RSRP value may bemeasured from the IDLE mode RS per SS block, for example. The measuredvalues are referred to “SS-block-RSRP” and may correspond to beamquality in multi-beam case, at least in idle mode. A UE may, forexample, measure one RSRP value from multiple SS blocks in an SS burstset or make multiple measurements. The additional RS for mobility, ifdefined, may be transmitted on multiple beams.

In NR, UEs indifferent states may perform mobility managementmeasurement with different performance requirements, such as latency,power consumption, etc. In beam-centric NR networks, cells, beams maynot be always present to be measured, either due to limitedtransmissions of measurement signals or frequent beam blockage, e.g.,due to susceptibility of narrow beams, UE rotation/mobility, suddenchanges of radio environment, etc. In addition, diverse usage scenariosand network deployment scenarios in NR demand appropriate flexibilityand configurability of measurement behaviors. Therefore, a newmeasurement framework is needed, so that flexible measurementconfigurations, mechanisms and procedures may be provided, such asreporting/triggering on beam level measurements, proper filteringprocess for measurement signals with different transmissioncharacteristics, multi-level consolidations of measurement results, etc.

For example, as described herein, measurement modeling and filtering maybe used in support of cell quality derivation for NR RRC_CONNECTED modemobility, RRC_INACTIVE mode mobility, or RRC_IDLE mode mobility.

RRC_CONNECTED mode mobility, for example, may include a number ofscenarios, such as inter-cell mobility and inter-TRP/intra-cellmobility. Inter-TRP/intra-cell mobility, for instance, may be involvedin the case of a split architecture where there is a centralized unit(CU) includes RRC and PDCP entities and a set of distributed units(DUs), such as RLC, MAC, and PHY entities, where the source TRP and thetarget TRP belongs to different DUs. The RRC_CONNECTED mode mobility mayalso include Intra-cell/inter beams-group mobility where the beam-groupmay be a grouping of beams at a level other than TRP level.

Measurement modeling and filtering may be used in support of: groups ofbeams, e.g., TRP beams; quality derivation for beam management, e.g.,TRP Tx beams/UE Rx beams selection; and inter-TRP Tx beams change for NRRRC_CONNECTED mode mobility or RRC_INACTIVE mode mobility.

Measurement modeling and filtering may also be used in support ofindividual beam quality derivation for intra-TRP beams change (e.g.,intra-TRP Tx beam changes, change of UE Rx beam).

Procedures for measurements configuration may include configuration ofmeasurement gaps. A measurement gap may be defined as a period or set ofperiods in which no UL or DL transmissions are scheduled. During themeasurement gap, the UE may perform measurements. Typically, measurementgaps are required for inter-frequency measurements, or inter-RATmeasurements, since the UE may need to tune its receiver chains to thetarget frequency or the target RAT. In the context of beam-centric cellarchitecture, where coverage is provided through the use of beamsweeping where at any given point in time, a portion of the cell isunder the coverage of the available beams while some other portions ofthe same cell are out of coverage. The current LTE measurement gapmechanism with static measurement gap lengths and static measurement gapperiod is inadequate for beam-centric cell architectures for a number ofreasons.

First, the gap may miss the occasion when a beam is physically present,and therefore need to be timed to coincide with the time occasions whenthe beams, such as DL TX beams for down link measurement, are physicallypresent, e.g., pointing toward the UE DL RX beam. This may become evenmore complex considering the fact that NR cells may not be synchronized.The measurement gap needs to coincide with the presence of DL TX beamsto measure.

Second, the gap needs to be long enough to allow the UE to detect beamsfrom neighboring cells with potentially unsynchronized beam sweepingpatterns.

Furthermore, when wider beams, such as idle mode RS beams, and narrowbeams, such as additional connected mode RS beams, are used togetherfor, e.g., in an overlay manner where the UE may receive on both widerbeam and narrow beam in overlapping time widow, there is a furtherchallenges even in the intra-frequency case, since the UE may not havethe capability to receive on both wider beam and narrow beam at the sametime, as illustrated in FIG. 7 .

Herein, the term “idle mode RS” and “NR-SS” refer to reference signalssuch as NR-PSS/SSS. The term “additional RS” refers to signals such asCSI-RS, Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS), and Mobility ReferenceSignal (MRS).

{Measurement Modeling and Filtering}

For the purposes of measurement modeling and filtering, referencesignals (RSs) may be classified into two broad categories. First are theidle mode RSs, e.g., the RSs the UE may measure in idle mode andinactive mode. Second are the connected mode RSs, e.g., the additionalRSs the UE may measure in connected mode.

The UE may primarily use idle mode RSs for cell detection/acquisitionand idle mode cell coverage evaluation. In connected mode, in additionto maintaining cell timing and evaluate cell coverage, the UE may alsoneed to transmit and receive data. The UE in RRC_CONNECTED may use idlemode RSs to maintain cell timing and to evaluate cell coverage or reportmeasurements performed on idle mode RSs to the network for cell coverageand mobility decision evaluation.

Measurements of idle mode RSs may also be used to determine RACHconfiguration that will be used when performing HO for RRC_CONNECTEDUEs. However, as extremely high TX/RX data rate are required fornarrower beamforming, as compared to for, e.g., idle mode RSs which willbe typically transmitted with wider beams, the additional RSs used inconnected mode, in addition to idle mode RSs in support of datatransmission, may be beamformed differently than idle mode RSs.

Idle mode RSs and additional connected mode RSs may be beamformeddifferently, e.g., in beam width, bandwidth, periodicity, etc. Thereforevarious solutions of measurement modeling and filtering design may beapplied to solve problems such as which beam/signal type to use for cellquality evaluation, how to derive cell quality from beam levelmeasurements, how to evaluate cell coverage level in support of mobilitydecisions, and how to perform measurements differently to handledifferent mobility scenarios. A single apparatus, e.g., a device at anode of a network, may be provided with the capability of performing anyor all of the techniques described herein, either separately or incombination, as may be useful in various connection scenarios. Thedynamic availability of different types of measurement signals is usefulin variety of situations for both RRC_CONNECTED andRRC_IDLE/RRC_INACTIVE operations.

For example, an RRC_CONNECTED UE may be configured to only measure idlemode RSs, which may be beneficial when extended coverage is needed.However, for low data rate such as machine type applications, or whereNR is deployed in lower frequencies and with a small number of antennaelements. In those cases, idle mode RSs could be sufficient for RRMmeasurements for RRC_CONNECTED UEs.

Similarly, an RRC_CONNECTED UE may be configured to only measureadditional RSs, and not NR-RS. This may be the case in deploymentscenarios in which cell coverage evaluation and mobility decision relyexclusively additional RS measurement. Measurement events and reportingconfiguration parameters may be set such that, the UE remain in the cellonce it transitioned into idle or RRC inactive mode.

An RRC_CONNECTED UE may be configured to measure both the idle mode RSsand the additional RSs. A UE in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE mode may beconfigured, for example, to only measure idle mode RSs.

FIG. 8 presents a design of multi-beam multi-level mobility measurementmodel for NR networks. The example of FIG. 8 addresses the tradeoffbetween relatively short-term fast reaction ( ) to the rapid channelvariation in the high frequencies, on the one hand, and the relativelylong-term stable, reliable derivation of the cell level quality on theother hand. In the approach of FIG. 8 , two types of measurement signalsare filtered and processed separately, the NR synchronization signal(NR-SS) is used as an example idle mode RS. CSI-RS is an example of anadditional RS that may be used.

FIG. 8 illustrates a multi-beam multi-level mobility measurement modelfor NR networks. The methods described herein, including the methods ofFIG. 8 , may be implemented via software, specialized hardware, or acombination thereof, for example.

The approach of FIG. 8 allows different measurement techniques to beapplied for different UE states and different levels of mobility. A UEmay considers measurement qualities such as RSRP, RSRQ, and SINR, amongothers, in a variety of scenarios. As referred to herein, Scenario 1 isinter-cell mobility, Scenario 2 is inter-TRP Tx beam changes, andScenario 3 is intra-TRP beam changes.

In FIG. 8 , the inputs at points A and B may be beam or beam pair levelmeasurements. The measurements may be, e.g., samples that are internalto the physical layer. NR-SS may also be transmitted in beams, forexample. For Point A, one or more RSRPs may be measured from the NR-SS.For example, one RSRP value may be measured from the NR-SS per SS block.The measured values may be referred to “SS-block-RSRP.” SS-block-RSRPmay correspond to the “beam quality” in RAN2 agreements in multi-beamcase. The time index of the SS block may be used in combination with theSS-block-RSRP to identify the beam associated with the measurement.

For Point B, one or more RSRPs may be measured from the additional RSfor CONNECTED mobility if such additional RS are defined, for example.

FIG. 9 shows example measurement samples at points A and B of FIG. 8 .The example of FIG. 9 assumes that the UE performs beam sweeping to DLRX beam 2. For additional RS, information of multiple identifiers, suchas beam ID and TRP ID, may be carried. For NR-SS, a cell ID may becarried so that measurement results are aggregated SS-Block measurementquantity value from multiple beams.

The Layer 1 filtering of FIG. 8 may involve measurement averaging.Exactly how and when the UE exactly performs measurements will beimplementation specific, provided that the output at Points C and Dfulfil any the performance requirements, such as those set forth in 3GPPTR 38.913. The averaging operations may be performed in the time domain,which means that measurements among different beams or beam pairs maynot be aggregated.

At Points C and D are beam or beam pair level measurement results aftertime averaging. Time averaging helps to reduce large fluctuations amongdifferent measurement samples that are reported by after Layer 1filtering.

The signals at Point E may be used to check whether beam levelmeasurement report is needed. This is useful for Scenario 3, intra-TRPbeam changes. For Layer 1 beam management procedures, e.g., beam qualitymonitoring and intra-TRP beam switching, the measurement report is timecritical and requires quick adaptation to beam quality variation andlight weight. This may only apply to additional RSs, since NR-SS istypically cell specific and does not carry beam information such as BeamID. In general, the information at Points D and E, which is local, timecritical, light weight, and adapts quickly to beam quality variation.

Layer 2 filtering is performed on the measurements provided at Point D.The behaviors of the Layer 2 filters may be standardized, and theconfiguration of the Layer 2 filters may be provided by L2 signalingsuch as MAC control elements. The filtering reporting period at Point Fmay be equal to one measurement period at Point D. The measurement isfiltered at the individual beam level. For situations where anintra-cell TRP switching or inter-TRP beam switching is needed, Layer 2mobility management without RRC involvement is enough. e.g., wheremultiple TRPs share a common MAC entity within the same cell. Fast Layer2 filtering and reports are defined in FIG. 8 to serve this purpose.

Layer 2 filtering operations may include a moving weighted average foran individual beam, for example, according to the formula:

F _(n)=(1−a)·F _(n−1) +a·M _(n)

where the M_(n) is the latest received measurement result of one beam orone SS-Block-RSRP from Layer 1 filtering. The F_(n) is the updatedfiltered measurement result. F_(n−1) is the old filtered measurementresult. F₀ is set to M₁ when the first measurement result from Layer 1filtering, a=½^((k/4)), where k is the filter coefficient for thecorresponding measurement quantity received in measurementconfigurations. The filter input rate is implementation dependent, andmay be determined by output rate of layer 1 filter.

The signals at Point F of FIG. 8 are beam or beam pair level measurementresults after Layer 2 filtering. After Point F, a Layer 2 multi-beamcombination may be used to derive the quality of a group of beams, suchas TRP beams. This is useful for, e.g., Scenario 2, inter-TRP Tx beamchanges. The quality derivation may be used for beam management, e.g.,for TRP Tx beams/UE Rx beam selection or inter-TRP Tx beams change forNR RRC_CONNECTED mode mobility or RRC_INACTIVE mode mobility.

Multiple options are available for which beams to select for inclusionin a group to be assessed. A group of beams may include, for example,only the best beam, a certain number of the best beams, all detectedbeams, or all beams exceeding a configurable threshold measurementquantity such as RSRP, RSRQ, or the like.

For scalability and flexibility, the manner in which beams are selectedfor inclusion in a set of being evaluated may be controlled andconfigured by network. For example, a number of beams, N, above athreshold, may be used, where both N and the threshold are set by thenetwork. Appropriate configurations of the value of N and the thresholdmay be used to cover many options. For example, set N to be 1, and setthreshold value to be a small enough value, N best beams above athreshold is actually selecting the best beam.

The signals at Point I are the output of Layer 2 multi-beam combination,and may be a single value to represent the quality of a group of beam.For example, where the group of beams are from the same TRP, the singlevalue represents the TRP's quality. Similarly, a single value mayrepresent the quality of a selected group of beams. The processingbetween Points I and L generally deals with inter-cell mobility withoutRRC involvement, where faster L2 filtering and reporting may suffice.

Layer 3 multi-beam combination may be used after Point F for cell levelmobility measurement. This is useful for Scenario 1, inter-cellmobility, for example. The options to be considered regarding whichmeasured beams a UE could select in order to derive a cell level qualitymay be the same as Layer 2 multi-beam combination after F. Thedifference in this module is that the parameters and threshold valuessuch as the value of N and a threshold value may be configuredseparately from a Layer 2 multi-beam combination. Specifically, forinter-cell mobility, more stable and reliable cell quality derivationsare expected, since the costs of signaling overhead and latency incurredare typically much higher than for intra-cell mobility, e.g., UEcontext/data forwarding and path switching, etc. As a result, beamcombination/consolidation option may be preferred for a longer-termmeasurement, such as, averaging the value in a large time window.

For Layer 3 multi-beam combination, if N beams above a threshold areconsidered to derive cell level quality, where N is greater than 1,there may be other different options. For example, one option is tochoose any N beams with measurement quantity above the threshold fromall measured beams, where N beams<all detected beams. However, this maynot be a good option if the selected beams are correlated, e.g., inspatial correlation, and experiencing the same channel path that wouldlikely be together above a threshold. A similar concept called as “beamgrouping” has been discussed in RAN1. See, e.g., 3GPP R1-1703184 On QCLFramework and Configurations in NR Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell,February 2017. The beams within a beam group may be highly correlatedand experience similar channel propagation, while beams from differentbeam groups are with low correlation, e.g., with low correlation interms of spatial correlation, channel response correlation, etc. Thenetwork may provide assistance information, e.g., which beams are QuasiCo Located, to UE to avoid selecting correlated beams for cell qualityderivation, so that more robust cells, e.g., cells having morealternative beams with diverse beam properties, may have higher derivedqualities.

The signals at Point H are the output of Layer 3 multi-beam combinationafter F, and include at least one value to represent cell level quality.In addition, beam level measurement results, such as beam ID and beamquality from selected beams, may be also included.

Layer 3 multi-beam combination may be used after Point C. Since cellspecific NR-SS may not carry any beam level information, such as beam IDor beam group ID, the combination approach may simply be aggregating thevalue of measured multiple SS-blocks from the same cell over the timedomain. In one example, the linear power values of up to N SS-block-RSRPmeasurements above a threshold may be averaged, for example, where thethreshold may be an absolute threshold or a relative threshold, e.g.,relative to the strongest SS-block-RSRP.

The signals at Point G are the output of Layer 3 multi-beam combinationafter C, and may contain only cell level quality based on aggregatedvalue of SS-block-RSRP, if NR-SS does not carry beam level information.

Layer 3 filtering may be used after Point G. The input may be only acell level quality. The filtering formula may be similar to that usedfor Layer 2 filtering, but with L3 specific parameters, e.g., k andaveraging time period. To obtain a more stable and reliable filteringresult, the averaging time window within the Layer 3 filtering istypically larger than that of Layer 2 and Layer 1. The network mayconfigure the UE with specific Layer 3 filtering. The behaviors of theLayer 3 filters may be standardized, and the configuration of the Layer3 filters may be provided by RRC signaling. Filtering reporting periodat J equals one measurement period at G.

Layer 3 filtering may be used after Point H. The input is dependent onthe output of Layer 3 multi-beam combination after F, which may includenot only cell level quality but also beam level information. A filteringformula like that used for Layer 3 filtering after G may be applied tosmooth out the value of cell level quality. Again, L3 specificparameters for this module may be configured differently, e.g., via thenetwork. Optionally, here after Point H for beam level qualityinformation, filtering operations may not be performed, e.g., whereinformation for different beams is used as input from H. Instead, forexample, the beam information may be directly forwarded to Layer 3report evaluation.

The signals at points J and K both include cell level measurements afterprocessing in the Layer 3 filter. The cell level measurements resultfrom operations based on filtering formula with specific parameters. ForPoint K, beam level information may be included if the Layer 3 filteringafter H has beam information as an input.

The Layer 2 and Layer 3 report criteria modules of FIG. 8 may be used tocheck whether measurement reporting is actually necessary at Point M, N,and L, according to the defined triggering. The UE may evaluate thereporting criteria at least every time a new measurement result isreported at Point J, K, and I. The reporting criteria may bestandardized and the configuration may be provided by network signaling,(e.g., as Layer 2 or Layer 3 signaling).

If both RS measurement results for the same cell are available, they maybe used for joint cell level evaluation,

The signals at Points M, N, and L include measurement report informationsent on the radio interface, e.g., via a message. For Point M, celllevel qualities may be reported. For N, at least cell level qualitiesmay be reported, and beam level quality/information may also be includeddepending on earlier processing. For Point L, a quality of a group ofbeam, e.g., the beams of a TRP if the group of beams belongs to the sameTRP, and/or information for an individual beam may be reported.

Joint evaluation of the signals at Points M and N may be used when bothmeasurement signals are available for CONNECTED mode UEs. The networkmay perform independent RRM measurement configuration for both signals,like the separate process pipelines shown in FIG. 8 . At the step ofLayer 3 report criteria evaluation, joint evaluation of cell levelquality for both signals may be needed. One example of joint evaluationis that UE firstly uses NR-SS measurements to discover neighboringcells. Then the network may use this information to configure additionalRS measurements, corresponding to likely handover candidate cells, toget more accurate and detailed measurements. For example, the networkmay turn on an additional RS transmission on a subset of beams, TRPsor/and cells, and then configure the UE to measure the same. Previousmeasurement results based on NR-SS may be aggregated as SS-Blockquantities, such as SS-block-RSRP and/or SS-block-RSRQ, from multiplebeams, and may not accurately reflect cell quality after handover.

In the FIG. 8 , both NR-SS and additional RS signals have beenconsidered. For a number reasons, the two types of measurement signalsmay be filtered independently.

First, the two types of measurement signals may have differentcharacteristics such as beam width, periodicity, signal design, andrequired measurement duration for full beam sweep. For example, assumeNR-SS is wide-beam based and the additional RS is narrow-beam based. Dueto the different beamforming gain, measurement quantity/quality of NR-SSmay be generally lower than that of additional RSs. When generate asingle value to represent cell level quality by merging measurementresults from both signals, it is hard to fairly perform mergingoperations. For example, when beam level measurement samples frommeasured NR-SS are more than the measurement samples from measuredadditional RS, the single value may be lower than the case that moreresults are from measured additional RS. In addition, the measurementquantity/quality of the two signals may be even more different due tothe time varying characteristics of wireless channel and being measuredat different time instances. So it may be better to do beam resultsconsolidation independently.

Second, when properties of the two measurement signals, e.g.,transmission resources, traffic loading of used transmission beams,etc., are changed independently, parameters in corresponding modulessuch as, reporting criteria, and combination methods, etc., may beseparately configured.

Third, sometimes only one signal is available or considered. Forexample, in the case of IDLE/INACTIVE mode UEs, only NR-SS may beavailable. Only additional RS is used for CONNECTED mode UEs. When onlyone signal is available or considered, the whole model/filtering designstill may be used as a common framework. For example, the measurementsampling of the Layer 1 filtering of one measurement signal processingpath may be turned off.

An alternate NR measurement model is shown in FIG. 17 . In this example,the same measurement model is used for idle mode RS and additional RSbased measurements. The top path through the model (Points A-D) is usedto compute cell level measurements and the bottom path (Points A-F) isused to compute beam level measurements. Without loss of generality, inthe example of FIG. 17 , NR-SS is used as example idle mode RS, andCSI-RS as example additional RS, and RSRP as an example measurementquantity.

In FIG. 17 , the inputs at Point A are measurements, e.g., samples thatare internal to the physical layer. L1 Filtering is internal filteringof the inputs measured at Point A. The exact filtering is implementationdependent. The information at Point B are measurements reported by L1 toL3 after L1 filtering.

Beam selection and cell quality derivation involves cell qualitymeasurements. In the example of FIG. 17 , the cell quality measurementsare based on the N best beams, where K is equal to the number ofmeasured beams and (N≤K). The value of N may be configured per carrieror per cell. The same value of N may be used when performing NR-SS andCSI-RS based measurements. Alternatively, different values of N may beconfigured for NR-SS and CSI-RS based measurements. When N>1, up to N ofthe detected beams above a threshold may be averaged to derive the cellquality. The threshold may be an absolute threshold or a relativethreshold. For example, the threshold may be relative to a measurementof the serving beam, the strongest beam, or the beam of quality beam,etc.

The information at Point C is a cell quality measurement. L3 CellQuality Filtering is performed on the measurements provided at Point C.The behavior of the L3 filters may be standardized, and theconfiguration of the L3 filters may be provided by RRC signaling. Thefiltering reporting period at D may equal one measurement period at B.

The signals at Point D are cell quality measurements after processing inthe L3 cell quality filter. The reporting rate may be identical to thereporting rate at Point B. This measurement is used as input for one ormore evaluations of reporting criteria.

L3 Beam Filtering is performed on the measurements provided at Point B.The behavior of the L3 filters may be standardized, and theconfiguration of the L3 filters may be provided by RRC signaling. Thefiltering reporting period at E may equal one measurement period at B.

The information at Point E is beam measurements after processing in theL3 filter. The reporting rate may be identical to the reporting rate atPoint B. This measurement may be used as input for one or moreevaluations of reporting criteria.

Beam Selection involves the selection of the measurement results for thebest beams. Up to X best beams, for X≤K, may be selected based on athreshold. The threshold may be an absolute threshold or a relativethreshold, e.g., relative to the measurement that corresponds to theserving beam, the strongest beam, the highest quality beam, etc.Alternatively, the X best beams may correspond to the X strongest beams.The output of the Beam Selection function may include the beam IDsand/or the measurement quantities. e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, and SINR. The timeindex of the SS block may be used as the beam ID for NR-SS basedmeasurements and the CSI-RS ID may be used as the beam ID for CSI-RSbased measurements.

The information at Point F includes beam measurements of the best beams.Beam measurements for up to X best beams are selected. The actual numberof beam measurements selected may be less than X, depending on thenumber of detected beams and/or the configured threshold.

Evaluation of Reporting Criteria involves checking whether actualmeasurement reporting is necessary at Point G. The evaluation may bebased on more than one flow of measurements at reference Points D and F,e.g., to compare between different measurements. This is illustrated byinputs at Points D, D′, D and F′. The UE may evaluate the reportingcriteria at least every time a new measurement result is reported atPoints D, D′, D and F′. The reporting criteria may be standardized, andthe configuration may be provided by RRC signaling for UE measurements.

The information at Point G is a measurement report information, e.g., amessage, sent on the radio interface. The measurement report may includecell level measurements and/or beam level measurements.

{Measurement Configuration and Procedures}

{Measurement Gap}

In NR, measurements gaps may be used to perform inter/intra-frequencyneighbor cell measurements as well as serving cell measurements. NR-SSsignals are transmitted according to the SS burst set configuration,therefore, a simple periodic measurement gap may not be sufficient forperforming measurements of these signals.

The following scenarios are example measurement use cases where gapconfiguration maybe required, either implicitly or explicitly. Each ofthese scenario may involve different gap configurations:

TABLE 3 Scenario A1 Intra-Frequency UE RX beam is in the direction ofthe beams to be measured (see FIG. 7) Scenario A2 Intra-Frequency UE RXbeam is in different direction than the beams to be measured Scenario B1Inter-Frequency UE RX beam is in the direction of the beams to bemeasured Scenario B2 Inter-Frequency UE RX beam is in differentdirection than the beams to be measured Scenario C1 Inter-RAT, non-dualconnectivity (single link) Scenario C2 Inter-RAT dual connectivity (ormulti-conneciivity).

A UE capability bit may be associated with, e.g., the scenariosdescribed in Table 3. The UE may signaled it capability to the gNB tohelp gNB in the provision of the proper measurement configuration gap.

For NR, a measurement gap configuration may be used that is dependent onthe SS burst set configuration of the serving cell and/or neighborcells.

For NR deployments, neighboring cells may be configured with the same SSburst series configurations. e.g., a synchronous burst seriesconfiguration. When cells are deployed in this way, a gap patternaligned with the SS burst series configuration of the serving cell maybe used to measure the serving cell as well as the neighbor cells. FIG.10 shows an example gap pattern configuration that may be used for asynchronous burst series configuration. The gap pattern is composed of aseries measurement gaps aligned with the SS bursts of the SS burstseries. The gap pattern is periodic, where the period may be an integermultiple of the period of the SS burst series. To avoid having all UEsin a measurement gap at the same time, a gapOffset parameter may be usedto distribute the UEs to different occurrences of the SS burst series.Alternatively, the gap pattern may be composed of a single measurementgap that spans the entire burst series, as shown in FIG. 18 .

In another embodiment, the SS burst series configurations of theneighbor cells are defined with an offset relative to the serving cellof then UE. In this embodiment, the UE is configured with time domainoffset between beam sweeping patterns (e.g., xSS block, xSS burst andxSS burst series, RS block, RS burst, RS burst series) of its servingTRP/cell versus neighbor TRP/cells. The offsets may be configuredthrough common broadcast signaling, dedicated signaling. The gNB mayconfigure the UE with the offset values at the initial connectionestablishment or during subsequent reconfiguration. The Offset value maybe neighbor cell specific, neighbor TRP specific or specific to a groupof beams. The offset may be expressed in terms of one or more of thefollowing: number of symbols, in number of slots or mini-slots, numberof subframe, number of radio frame. The offset may be zero in whichcase, the beam sweeping pattern between the UE serving cell and itsneighbor coincide in time domain as illustrated in FIG. 10 . The offsetmay be frequency specific or component carrier specific gap offset orcell specific gap offset. The UE use the offset information toimplicitly derive the beam sweeping pattern (e.g., the burst seriesconfiguration) of the cells or TRPs or group of beams that are neighborwith its serving beam or serving TRP or serving cell. The UE may use asimplicit measurement gap, the time period within the beam sweeping cyclewhere there is no serving beam transmitting in the direction of the UERX beam. The UE may also be configured explicitly by the gNB withmeasurement gaps. Such measurement gap may be required for the UE tomeasure beams transmission in the same direction as the serving beam ofthe UE for, e.g., in the case of inter-frequency measurement ormeasurement of wider beam while the UE is in reception mode with anarrower high power beam.

Alternatively, neighboring cells may be configured with different SSburst series configurations. We refer to this as an asynchronous burstseries configuration. When cells are deployed in this way, a gap patternaligned with the SS burst series configuration of the serving cellcannot be used to perform measurements of the neighbor cells, since themeasurement gaps are not guaranteed to be aligned with the SS bursts ofthe neighbor cells. One solution to perform measurements for such adeployment would be to use a gap pattern that includes a set of gapsaligned with the burst series of the serving cell to perform servingcell measurements and an additional set of gaps offset by a variableamount that is incremented with each occurrence of the measurement gapto measure the neighbor cells as shown in FIG. 11 . Alternatively, thegap pattern may be composed of a single measurement gap that spans theentire burst series as shown in FIG. 19 .

For deployments where the cells may not be synchronized in time domain,it may be possible to determine the angular offset between the sweepingpatterns of the cells with respect to the serving cell. This offset maybe used by the UE to determine when a neighbor cell will be transmittingSS blocks in its direction and therefore when the UE should perform ameasurement of that cell. FIG. 12 shows an example where cell 2 and cell3 are offset from cell 1 by −60 and 90 degrees respectively. The angularoffset could be used in combination with information about the topologyof the network to optimize when the UE performs the measurements of cell2 and cell 3.

A set of example NR gap pattern configurations is shown in Table 4. Anexample NR MeasGapConfig IE is also shown in Example A (see appendix).The example NR MeasGapCoanfig IE includes an optionalalignWithBurstSeries parameter that is used to indicate if the gappattern is composed of a set of gaps aligned with the bursts of theburst series as shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 or if it is composed of asingle gap that spans the burst series as shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19 .The example NR MeasGapConfig IE also includes an optional incrementalGapparameter that is use to indicate if an additional gap with an offsetthat increments as shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 19 is also configured.

TABLE 4 NR Gap Pattern Configurations Measurement Gap Measurement GapLength Repetition Period Gap Pattern Id (MGL, ms) (MGRP, ms) 0 2 40 1 280 2 2 160 3 6 40 4 6 80 5 6 160 6 11 40 7 11 80 8 11 160

{Event Triggering}

A NR UE may be required to measure multiple beams (if available) withina cell. This will increase the UE power consumption and latency. It isnecessary to define some trigger events similar as in LTE to reduce UEmeasurement effort and power consumption.

In beamformed systems, mobility scenarios may be different (as listed inproblem statement). These diverse mobility scenarios require flexiblemeasurement configurations. Different measurement trigger events andassociated parameters/thresholds could be configured by taking intoaccount the intra/inter-cell operations that lead to different level ofsignaling overhead and latency. Typically, inter-cell or inter-gNBmobility cases require relatively long-term evaluation with higherthreshold values since higher layer costly signals and context/datatransfer are typically needed while intra-cell or intra-TRP mobilitycases require relatively short-term evaluation with lower thresholdvalues since no higher layer signaling or/and context/data transfer areneeded. And the short-term evaluation based trigger events enable a UEreact/adapt fast to frequent variations in channel quality due to use ofhigh gain narrow beams. Moreover, it could be considered that during themeasurement events configuration, network could indicate whether the UEscompare the cell-specific measurement result or beam-specificmeasurement result from serving cell and/or neighboring cell, andfurther indicate the level of measurements the UEs report (e.g., whichlevel of beam-level measurement results is included, beam ID only oralso beam quality.) when conditions of trigger events are satisfied.

It has already been agreed that NR will support at least events like LTEA1-A6. RSRP, RSRQ, and RS-SINR may be used as trigger quantities inevent triggering. The trigger quantities are measured on NR-SS or/andadditional RS. In measuring any one of the two types of signals,TRP/cell level quantity is derived based on measurement results.Examples NR-A1 through NR-A8 include trigger events in NR networksaffecting inter-cell mobility scenarios.

In example NR-A1, the average value or weighted sum of trigger quantity(e.g., RSRP, RSRQ and RS-SINR) of N best beams of serving cell becomesoffset better than a configurable threshold and the number of acceptablebeams (e.g., measurement quantity such as RSRP higher than aconfigurable value) is not less than a configurable value.

In example NR-A2, the average value or weighted sum of trigger quantityof N best beams of serving cell becomes worse than a configurablethreshold and the number of acceptable beams in serving cell is lessthan a configurable value.

In example NR-A3 the average value or weighted sum of trigger quantityof N best beams of a neighbor cell becomes offset better thanPCell/PSCell and the number of acceptable beams in the neighbor cell isno less than a configurable value or more than that in PCell/PSCell.

In example NR-A4, the average value, or weighted sum, of triggerquantity of N best beams of a neighbor cell becomes better than aconfigurable threshold and the number of acceptable beams in theneighbor cell is not less than a configurable value.

In example NR-A5, the average value or weighted sum of trigger quantityof N best beams of serving cell becomes worse than one configurablethreshold and of a neighbor cell becomes better than anotherconfigurable threshold. In addition, the number of acceptable beams inserving cell is less than one configurable value and the number ofacceptable beams in the neighbor cell is not less than anotherconfigurable value or more than that in serving cell.

In example NR-A6, the average value or weighted sum of trigger quantityof N best beams of a neighbor cell becomes offset better that of SCell,and the number of acceptable beams in the neighbor cell is not less thana configurable value.

In example NR-A7, the number of acceptable beams of the PCell/PSCellbecomes greater than a configurable value.

In example NR-A8, the number of acceptable beams of the PCell/PSCellbecomes less than a configurable value.

In the case of inter-gNB or intra-gNB level inter-cell mobilityscenarios, such trigger events may be used by applying different groupsof threshold/values and/or performing average or sum operations within adifferent size of time period. For example, for inter-gNB inter-cellmobility scenario, trigger quantity is averaged/summed in a relativelylarge time period, and the threshold values may be larger than that ofintra-gNB inter-cell mobility scenario, in order to accumulate long-termand relatively more stable measurement results to avoid costly handoveractions among different gNBs.

For intra-cell TRP switching mobility scenarios, we may define anotherset of trigger events NR-T1 to T6 by replacing the cell level value inNR-A1 to A6 with the TRP level value.

For intra-TRP beam switching mobility scenarios, we may define someexample beam level trigger events. In Scenario NR-BM1, any one servingbeam (if one or more than one serving beams) quality quantity (e.g.,RSRP, RSRQ, and RS-SINR) becomes better than a configurable threshold.In Scenario NR-BM2, any one serving beam (if more than one serving beam)quality becomes better than the quality of the best beams in alldetectable neighbor cells or TRPs. In Scenario NR-BM3, any one servingbeam quality becomes worse than a configurable threshold. In ScenarioNR-BM4, any one serving beam quality becomes worse than an average valueof a neighbor cell or TRP.

In NR, according to the captured recent RAN1 agreements, anRRC_CONNECTED UE will at least be able to measure an IDLE RS, defined asthe synchronization sequence (NR-SS), and possibly an additional DMRSfor PBCH. Without loss of generality we take NR-SS as an example. Inhigh frequencies, NR-SS is very likely to be transmitted in multiplebeams. NR-SS encodes a cell ID so that UE may measure and differentiatethe NR-SS from serving cell or neighbor cells, as also agreed in RAN1.However, since it is a common understanding that NR-SS is cell-specific,but not TRP-specific (unless the network deployment has a one-to-onemapping between a cell and a TRP and each cell consists of a single TRP)or UE-specific, the network should be able and only able to configure aUE events such as those in Examples NR-A1 to A6 for NR-SS so that UE maytrigger cell-based measurement reports in RRC_CONNECTED.

For additional RS, the common understanding so far is that additional RSwill at least carry some kind of beam identifier (either implicit orexplicit). Whether additional RS contains other identifiers like cell IDor/and TRP ID, it is still an open question. FIG. 13 is an example toexplain when it is beneficial to have TRP ID and cell ID encoded. InFIG. 13 , when the RRC_CONNECTED UE travels along the bottom-up redtrajectory, UE measures the network configured additional RS which aretransmitted in the narrow beams. There may be two issues.

First, if based on only beam-level event triggers (such as in ScenariosNR-BM1 to BM4), quality of narrow beams may degrade quickly and frequentmeasurement/mobility events may be observed.

Second, if addition RS does not carry information for UE to map eachbeam with corresponding TRP and cell, UE may perform ping-pong mobilityhandover among these different cells, TRPs and gNBs, where unnecessaryexpensive context/data forwarding happen (also against one of the recentRAN2 meeting agreements that context/data forwarding should beminimized).

To solve issues in the context of FIG. 13 , there are at least threepossible solutions. In Solution 1, the network dynamically and carefullyconfigure additional RS to be transmitted on specific beams. Forexample, in FIG. 13 , network may turn on additional RS transmission(either based on UE location/mobility estimations/predictions orrequested by UE) to transmit only within cell1/gNB1 governed area.However, this solution requires accurate information of UE andfrequent/costly coordination to make the scheduling. When the number ofUE increases, the scheduling becomes more complicated.

In Solution 2, the UE relies on a group of additional RS instead of onlyone beam and may use defined beam level trigger events. This solutiononly solves the first issue. For the second issue, UE still has noinformation whether the group of additional RS is from the same TRP/cellor different TRP/cell.

In Solution 3, each additional RS carries not only beam identify butalso TRP or/and cell ID, or/and even gNB ID. During measurement ofadditional RS, beam level measurement results will be translated intocell-level or/and TRP-level measurement, so that UE may choose to preferintra-TRP, intra-cell beam/TRP switching. Also, different groups ofoffset and threshold values used in defined triggering events may becarefully designed to avoid unnecessary ping-pong mobility behaviors.This solution requires higher overhead since additional RS carries moreinformation during transmissions. Also TRP/cell ID has to be designed tobe unique in a certain area, leading to gradually increased decodingcomplexity to UE.

The network decides which solution may be used according to actualdeployments, and configure necessary information to UE (e.g., whichresource is used by additional RS to transmit, etc.). In the case ofSolution 3 is applied, FIG. 14 shows how triggering events could beused.

It will be appreciated that the functionality illustrated in FIGS. 13-14may be implemented in the form of software (e.g., computer-executableinstructions) stored in a memory of, and executing on a processor of, awireless device or other apparatus (e.g., a server, gateway, device, orother computer system), such as one of those illustrated in FIGS. 21 and25 .

For a UE in RRC_CONNECTED state, how to jointly evaluate the cell-levelmeasure results and triggering may be determined by networkconfiguration of the UE. For example, based on NR-SS measurement, a UEmay first discover and make a list of neighboring cells, and thentrigger further cell-level measurement where more accurate measurementresults may be derived based on an additional scheduled RS.

{Report and Content}

A measurement report may be used to transfer measurement results fromthe UE to Network in the case of network controlled mobility, so thatthe network may decide whether and where to handover a UE to anappropriate cell. After a UE measures multiple beams from both servingcells and neighbor cells, there are a number of options for measurementreporting. In Report Option 1, a UE reports combined quality of multiplebeams.

In Report Option 2, a UE reports individual beam (pair) measurementresult. There may be some scenarios when RRC_CONNECTED state UE performsmeasurement based on only NR-SS and no beam level information isavailable. In those scenarios, this option is not possible. However, inthis scenario, the UE may report individual SS-block measurementresults, where each SS-block measurement may be identified by the timeindex of the SS block corresponding to the measurement.

In Report Option 3, a UE reports combined quality of multiple beams plusindividual beam (pair) measurement results.

For Report Option 2, combined quality of multiple beams may betranslated into cell-level or TRP-level quality representations. Recent3GPP meetings already agreed that at least cell-level measurementresults will be contained in the measurement report and beam-levelmeasurement results may be optionally included. But inclusion of otherreport content is still an open question. Again take FIG. 13 as anexample. When the RRC_CONNECTED UE travels along the bottom-up redtrajectory. UE measures the network according to network configurations.Redundant/ping-pong handover may occur if only cell quality is takeninto account during handover evaluation. For example, UE may handover tofrom cell1 (TRP2) to cell2 (TRP3) when UE is under more beam coverage ofcell 2 (so cell 2 quality is better than cell 1 quality), and thenhandover back to cell1 (TRP1). Even when beam level measurement resultsare available to UE and network due to measurement of additional RS.However, if TRP level quality is available in measurement report,network may not decide to handover UE from cell1/TRP2) to cell2, TRP3because network knows that TRP1 also has acceptable quality (may belower combined quality than TRP3) and has the advantage of sharing thesame gNB as TRP2. This may significantly minimize/save the context/dataforwarding cost (in terms of signaling overhead and latency).

For Report Option 1, it may be necessary to consider several factors.

First, the radio environment change should be taken into account bynetwork when configure UE whether to include individual beam (pair)measurement result in to measurement report. For example, user movement,angular rotation, and blocking cause variations in signal quality ofbeams transmitted from serving and neighboring cells/TRPs. In thesehighly volatile/dynamic radio environment, beams results may be expiredsooner after the report has been sent out. For example, Beam quality,even beam index (due to rotation), is not accurate any more.

Second, a cell may cover a large area and involve a rather large numberof TRPs. The beam results should provide a fair indication of where theUE is likely to appear in the target cell. This information seems usefulfor the network to know, e.g., when allocating dedicated RA resources.For example, the measurement report may include beam measurements thatinclude the time index of the SS block thereby allowing the network toknow which SS block(s) the UE may detect and therefore, which RAresources to use when allocating a dedicated preamble for handover.

Third, an obvious benefit of cell/TRP level report is that the signalingoverhead is quite low. However, measurement report that contains onlycell/TRP quality information may be insufficient for network in handoverprocess since the network side has no idea of which beams are qualified.In handover command, the target cell/TRP cannot configure beam specificPRACH parameters for the UE. As a result, UE may only initiatecontention based random access, based on the parameters read from systeminformation or HO command, consuming more time than non-contention basedrandom access.

Fourth, once the beam measurement results forwarded by the sourcecell/TRP to target cell/TRP, the target cell/TRP may better prepare DLTX beam via something like pre beam alignment instead of regular beamsweeping process. This may significantly reduce handover latency.

Furthermore, based on the beam information in the report, targetcell/TRP may prepare assistance information for UE, like RACH resource,or DL/UL TX/RX beam pair to be used. This information may be forwardedby source cell/TRP to UE, and help the UE to identify optimal beam pairfast and reduce the data/message interruption time.

Those factors/situations may be translated into different groups ofparameters in measurement configuration, so that a UE may quickly makelocal decisions which beams beam results, if any, may be included.Alternatively, these configurable groups of parameters may also bedynamically changed by the network as needed due to factors likereal-time traffic load balancing, policy, deployment changes, etc.

A measurement report sent by UE may be configured to include flexiblecontent, such as, for example: measurement results of N beams of a celland or a TRP; average or summation of combined results of N beams of acell and/or a TRP; and a number of beams of a cell and/or a TRP withquality above some configurable threshold values.

In Table 5, some example measurement report options. For some factors,the threshold/parameter values affecting/contained in the measurementreport may be properly scaled/adjusted. For example, in the case of highUE mobility speed, the number of N may be smaller.

TABLE 5 Example measurement report options in NR Measurement reportoptions Pros. Cons. A. Cell/TRP level Low signaling overhead1.Suboptimal target beam, measurements 2.More time to set up RRCconnection with target cell/TRP B. Cell/TRP level 1.Relatively lowsignaling Same with option A measurements + Number overhead of N beams(e.g., best N 2.Stable target cell/TRP to beams of acceptable avoidping-pong mobility quality) events C. Cell/TRP level 1.Optimal targetbeam, Medium signaling overhead measurements + Beam ID 2.Load balancingin target of N beams cell/TRP, 3.Save time for RRC connection setup intarget cell/TRP D. Cell/TRP level Same with option C High signalingoverhead. Beam measurements + Beam ID + quality may be unnecessary sinceIndividual beam quality beam ID of good beams may be of N beams alreadyenough to assist network during handover process.

Example B is an example NR MeasurementReport message. Example C is anexample MeasResults IE. {see appendix} The NR MeasResults IE mayoptionally include a beamResultList field for the serving cell and/orthe neighbor cells. The beamResultList may include just the beam Id's,which may be ordered according to the strength of the measurementquantity or the beamResultList may also include the measurement quantityfor the reported beams.

{Measurement Object}

Measurement object is the object on which a UE may perform themeasurements, e.g., frequencies and cells, and parameters associatedwith, for example, frequency or cell-specific offsets. In NR, due to theuse of massive MIMO and beamforming, beams may be used popularly byvarious TRPs and cells. Typically, the narrower the beam is the highergain the beam may provide. In order to provide adequate capacity, thiswould imply quite narrow beams and then a higher number of beams tocover a cell area. In the meantime, due to the fragileness of highfrequency beamforming, even a small rotation or a little movement at theUE side may lead to beam change. These frequent beam changes in turn maytrigger frequent UE measurements according to the defined triggerevents. For these reasons, huge measurement overhead on UE may beexisted in NR networks.

To reduce measurement cost from both energy and latency perspective (forsingle radio UE, measurement may also cause data/message transmissioninterruptions), measurement objects configured on a UE need to belimited to reduce UE measurement effort. For example, UE may beconfigured to measure only subset of beams, cells, TRPs or/andfrequencies, instead of full beam sweeping period of allcells/TRPs/frequencies. From network operation perspective, someTRPs/Cells may be configured to be active only for specific situations(e.g., rush hours use only such as sports, holiday, etc.). Additional RSmay be turned on temporarily, for example as part of handoverpreparation. In other words, measurement objects configured to a UEshould be flexible and configurable, and a measurement object is onlyconfigured when the measurement for the UE is necessary.

One solution to configure subset of beams or/and TRPs for UE measurementis by exchanging subset information between adjacent TRPs/cells. Thesubset information may contain NR-SS information (e.g., periodicity,etc.) of neighboring cells and frequencies, additional RS beaminformation (e.g., beam ID, width, resources, loading level, etc.) andneighboring TRPs/cells' traffic load, etc. NR-SS and cell informationare for all UEs (IDLE, INACTIVE, CONNECTED), while additional RS and TRPinformation are for CONNECTED UE only. The adjacent TRPs/cells maybelong to the same or different cells/gNBs. When UE measurement istriggered by events, serving TRP/cell may inform neighbor TRP/cells(e.g., over X2 interface) about the UE location information and send arequest for beam information of the neighbor TRP/cells. With the UE'slocation information, neighbor TRP/cells may select a subset ofbeams/TRPs close to UE, and send the subset back to serving TRP/cell,and finally serving TRP/cell may forward the whole subset or part of thesubset back to UE for later measurement. Alternatively, instead ofon-demand request, neighbor TRP/cells may deliver the beam informationto the serving TRP/cells periodically or whenever the beam sweepingpattern or the RS (NR-SS or/and additional RS) resources have changed.

The measurement configuration may include a parameter controlling whenthe UE is required to perform neighbor cell measurements. We refer tothis parameter as S-measure. S-measure may correspond to a PCell qualitythreshold that is compared with the derived cell quality of the PCell.The UE would be required to perform neighbor cell measurements when thederived PCell quality is below S-measure. Idle mode RS and/or additionalRS based measurements may be used to derive the PCell quality that isused when determining when the UE is required to perform neighbor cellmeasurements. The measurement type to use; e.g., NR-SS or CSI-RS based,may be specified per the standard or signaled by the network via highersignaling; e.g., RRC signaling. Alternatively, both NR-SS and CSI-RSbased PCell quality may be derived and used to make a joint decision.For example, the UE may be configured such that neighbor cellmeasurements are required if either the NR-SS or CSI-RS based cellquality is below S-measure. Alternatively, the UE may be configured suchthat measurements are required if both the NR-SS and CSI-RS based cellquality are below S-measure. The network may configure the UE with asingle S-measure parameter that may be used for NR-SS and/or CSI-RSbased measurements. Alternatively, separate NR-SS and CSI-RS basedthresholds may be configured; e.g., s-Measure and csi-s-Measure.

For NR, metrics other than the derived PCell quality may also be used tocontrol when the UE is required to perform neighbor cell measurements.For example, the UE may trigger neighbor cell measurements when thenumber of suitable serving cell beams is below a threshold. A suitablebeam may be a beam whose measurement quantity is above a specifiedthreshold. The threshold used to determine if a beam is suitable may bethe same as s-Measure or csi-s-Measure. Alternatively, a separatethreshold(s) may be used to determine if a beam is suitable. The networkmay configure the UE with a single threshold for the number of suitablebeams that may be used for NR-SS and/or CSI-RS based measurements; e.g.,s-Measure-beams. Alternatively, separate NR-SS and CSI-RS basedthresholds may be configured; e.g., s-Measure-beams andcsi-Measure-beams. Such criteria could be configured in combination withthe s-Measure and/or csi-s-Measure criteria. For example, if s-Measureand s-Measure-beams were both configured, the UE would be required toperform neighbor cell measurements if the derived cell quality was belows-Measure or the number of suitable beams was below s-Measure-beams. Anexample MeasConfig IE that includes such parameters is shown in ExampleD. {see appendix}

The derived cell quality and number of beams above a threshold may bedetermined from points J and K respectively of the measurement modelshown in FIG. 8 or from points D and F, respectively, of the alternatemeasurement model shown in FIG. 17 .

The MeasConfig IE includes an optional quantityConfig field that may beused to define the measurement quantities and associated filtering usedfor all event evaluation and related reporting of configuredmeasurements. For NR, the measurement quantities may be based on idlemode RS; e.g., NR-SS, and/or additional RS; e.g., CSI-RS. Furthermore,the measurement quantities may be at a cell level or a beam level. TheQuantityConfig IE shown in Example E {see appendix} may be used toconfigure the NR measurement quantities and associated filtering. Theparameters without the csi prefix are used to configure the idle mode RSbased measurement quantities; e.g., NR-SS, while the parameters with thecsi prefix are used to configure the additional RS based measurementquantities: e.g., CSI-RS. The first set of parameters are for the celllevel measurement quantities, while the second set are for the beamlevel measurement quantities. The presence or absence of a specificparameter in the IE may be used to indicate whether or not theassociated measurement quantity is configured.

The MeasConfig IE includes an optional measObjectToAddModList field thatmay include an NR measurement configuration such as the exampleMeasObjectNR IE shown in example F. {see appendix} The MeasObjectNR IEmay include fields to configure the number beams used in the cellquality derivation and a threshold the beam measurement must be above tobe used in the cell quality derivation. Similarly, the MeasObjectNR IEmay also include parameters to configure the maximum number of beams Xto consider for event detection and/or inclusion in the measurementreport, and a threshold the beam measurement must be above to beconsidered for event detection and/or included in the measurementreport. The same configuration may be used for idle mode RS andadditional RS based measurements. Alternatively, the UE may beconfigured independently for idle mode RS and additional RS basedmeasurements; e.g., an additional set of fields with a csi-prefix may beoptionally included in the IE to configure CSI-RS based cell qualityderivation and beam level event detection and reporting. Example G is aMeasObjectToAddModList Information Element.

{Measurement Procedures}

Example signaling flow for NR DL measurement based inter-cell handoverprocedure is shown in FIG. 15 . During initial access, the UE mayperform cell selection and registration with the network. Followinginitial access, UE may perform measurement configuration and measurementprocedures.

In step 1 of FIG. 15 , default measurement configuration (e.g., objectto measure, frequencies, cells, NR-SS periodicity, etc.) may be offlinepreconfigured or obtained from System Information (e.g., Other SI).Alternatively, UE may optionally obtain updated configurations thatcomplements the default configuration (e.g., on demand request of OtherSI which includes updated measurement configurations, or over dedicatedsignaling.). The MeasConfig IE defined above may be used to configurethe NR measurements.

In step 2 of FIG. 15 , UE performs beam level measurements in sourcecell and target cell based on cell specific beam reference signals(e.g., NR-SS specified in measurement configurations) and derives singlevalue of cell level quality by configuring proper combination algorithmin measurement model (see measurement model, filtering design, and thealternate NR measurement model described above). If the UE us configuredwith criteria to control when neighbor cell measurements are performed;e.g., s-Measure, csi-s-Measure, s-detected-beams, then the neighbor cellmeasurements are only performed when the criteria are met as describedabove under measurement object. The measurement results are evaluated tosee if any defined triggering event would be triggered.

In step 3 of FIG. 15 , upon triggering a measurement reporting eventbased on NR-SS, UE provides the RRC level report to the source cell. AsNR-SS is cell specific, it may provide only cell level differentiationso that only the cell measurements is included in the measurementreport. Alternatively, the UE may be configured to also report beamlevel measurement based on NR-SS measurements, where the beam levelmeasurement results in the report may include the beam Id's; e.g., thetime index of the SS block, which may be ordered according to thestrength of the measurement quantity. The reported beam levelmeasurements may also include the actual measurement quantity; e.g.,SS-block-RSRP, SS-block-RSRQ. The NR measurements may be reported usingthe NR MeasResults IE signaled via the NR MeasurementReport message asdescribed above under report and content.

In step 4 of FIG. 15 , based on the NR-SS measurement report, sourcecell configures the UE to perform further measurements (e.g., a subsetof additional RS corresponding to beams in one or multiple TRPs/cells)for more accurate measurement results. The further measurements may beconfigured using the QuantityConfig IE defined above under measurementobject. Measurement results based on NR-SS may be aggregated SS-blockmeasurement quantities (from same or different TRPs) and may not reflectactual cell quality during data transmission (when only single TRP isselected as the serving TRP).

In step 5 of FIG. 15 , in addition to performing measurements on theNR-SS, the UE performs cell and/or beam level measurements on the newlyconfigured additional RS from one or multiple neighboring TRPs/Cells aswell as the serving cell. The measurement results are evaluated to seeif any defined triggering event would be triggered. Triggering eventsevaluated here may or may not be the same as the events evaluated instep 2. For example, triggering events may be defined differently forNR-SS and additional RS.

In step 6 of FIG. 15 , upon triggering a measurement reporting eventbased on additional RS, UE provides the RRC level report to the sourcecell, where the measurements may be reported using the NR MeasResults IEsignaled via the NR MeasurementReport message as described above underreport and content. In addition to cell quality, UE reports beammeasurements of source and target cell. Beam information may consist ofa beam identification (Beam ID or Beam index) and a signal level, suchas RSRP. Alternatively, in case UE has provided beam level informationvia beam management procedure to the serving cell (e.g., to facilitateintra-cell mobility/mobility without RRC involvement), UE may not needto report serving cell beam measurements as these may be alreadyavailable at source via L1/L2 signaling. The UE may also include celllevel measurement quantities based on the NR-SS in the report ifavailable.

In step 7 of FIG. 15 , once source cell have received UE measurementreport, it may utilize the beam measurements to determine whether tohandover UE to another cell (in this example figure, to the targetcell). Providing only cell level measurement results may give limitedinformation for source cell to make handover decisions. Using beammeasurements on both source and target cell (or multiple potentialtarget cells) may determine, e.g., number of qualified beams (e.g.,non-correlated beams with quality above a threshold) in target cell andcompare to the current availability on serving cell and other measuredneighboring cells. Multiple qualified beams may provide schedulingflexibility to network (e.g., in case hybrid/analogue beamforming isused) and it may ensure serving cell connectivity robustness.

In step 8 of FIG. 15 , after handover (HO) decision, beam levelmeasurements are forwarded to the target cell, e.g., in a HO request.These measurements may be used by the target cell to reserve resourcesfor RACH access corresponding to the reported beams, e.g., assigncontention free RACH resources that would be beam specific. In addition,target cell may prepare DL TX beam (target cell knows which DL TX beamis best for UE from the reported beam level information) via somethinglike pre beam pairing instead of regular beam sweeping process. This maysignificantly reduce handover latency.

In step 9 of FIG. 15 , target cell performs admission control andprovides the RRC configuration, where access assistance information maybe included. The access assistance info may include the selected beampair(s) for UE, assigned C-RNTI and random access parameters.

In step 10 of FIG. 15 , target cell forwards the access assistance infoin a HO request ACK message via Xn. UE receives the configuration viasource cell. Assigning contention free RACH resources for UE potentiallyminimizing delays in completing the HO procedure

In step 11 of FIG. 15 , once the assistance information is forwarded toUE from source cell, UE may initiate random access on configured beampair(s) and moves the connection to the target cell via RRC.

It is understood that the entities performing the steps illustrated inFIG. 15 may be logical entities that may be implemented in the form ofsoftware (e.g., computer-executable instructions) stored in a memory of,and executing on a processor of, an apparatus configured for wirelessand/or network communications or a computer system such as thoseillustrated in FIGS. 21 and 25 . That is, the method(s) illustrated inFIG. 15 may be implemented in the form of software (e.g.,computer-executable instructions) stored in a memory of an apparatus,such as the apparatus or computer system illustrated in FIGS. 21 and 25, which computer executable instructions, when executed by a processorof the apparatus, perform the steps illustrated in FIG. 15 . It is alsounderstood that any transmitting and receiving steps illustrated in FIG.15 may be performed by communication circuitry of the apparatus undercontrol of the processor of the apparatus and the computer-executableinstructions (e.g., software) that it executes.

Interfaces, such as Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), may be used toassist user to control and/or configure functionalities related todownlink measurement design in new radio (NR). FIG. 16 is a diagram thatillustrates an interface 1602 that allows a user to input parameterscorresponding to an index value. It is to be understood that interface1602 may be produced using displays such as those shown in FIGS. 21 and25 .

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) develops technicalstandards for cellular telecommunications network technologies,including radio access, the core transport network, and servicecapabilities—including work on codecs, security, and quality of service.Recent radio access technology (RAT) standards include WCDMA (commonlyreferred as 3G), LTE (commonly referred as 4G), and LTE-Advancedstandards. 3GPP has begun working on the standardization of nextgeneration cellular technology, called New Radio (NR), which is alsoreferred to as “5G”. 3GPP NR standards development is expected toinclude the definition of next generation radio access technology (newRAT), which is expected to include the provision of new flexible radioaccess below 6 GHz, and the provision of new ultra-mobile broadbandradio access above 6 GHz. The flexible radio access is expected toconsist of a new, non-backwards compatible radio access in new spectrumbelow 6 GHz, and it is expected to include different operating modesthat may be multiplexed together in the same spectrum to address a broadset of 3GPP NR use cases with diverging requirements. The ultra-mobilebroadband is expected to include cmWave and mmWave spectrum that willprovide the opportunity for ultra-mobile broadband access for, e.g.,indoor applications and hotspots. In particular, the ultra-mobilebroadband is expected to share a common design framework with theflexible radio access below 6 GHz, with cmWave and mmWave specificdesign optimizations.

3GPP has identified a variety of use cases that NR is expected tosupport, resulting in a wide variety of user experience requirements fordata rate, latency, and mobility. The use cases include the followinggeneral categories: enhanced mobile broadband (e.g., broadband access indense areas, indoor ultra-high broadband access, broadband access in acrowd, 50+ Mbps everywhere, ultra-low cost broadband access, mobilebroadband in vehicles), critical communications, massive machine typecommunications, network operation (e.g., network slicing, routing,migration and interworking, energy savings), and enhancedvehicle-to-everything (eV2X) communications. Specific service andapplications in these categories include, e.g., monitoring and sensornetworks, device remote controlling, bi-directional remote controlling,personal cloud computing, video streaming, wireless cloud-based office,first responder connectivity, automotive ecall, disaster alerts,real-time gaming, multi-person video calls, autonomous driving,augmented reality, tactile internet, and virtual reality to name a few.All of these use cases and others are contemplated herein.

FIG. 20 illustrates one embodiment of an example communications system100 in which the methods and apparatuses described and claimed hereinmay be embodied. As shown, the example communications system 100 mayinclude wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) 102 a, 102 b, 102 c,and/or 102 d (which generally or collectively may be referred to as WTRU102), a radio access network (RAN) 103/104/105/103 b/104 b/105 b, a corenetwork 106/107/109, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, theInternet 110, and other networks 112, though it will be appreciated thatthe disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, basestations, networks, and/or network elements. Each of the WTRUs 102 a,102 b. 102 c, and 102 d may be any type of apparatus or deviceconfigured to operate and/or communicate in a wireless environment.Although each WTRU 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and 102 d is depicted in FIGS.20-24 as a hand-held wireless communications apparatus, it is understoodthat with the wide variety of use cases contemplated for 5G wirelesscommunications, each WTRU may comprise or be embodied in any type ofapparatus or device configured to transmit and/or receive wirelesssignals, including, by way of example only, user equipment (UE), amobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a pager, a cellulartelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a laptop, atablet, a netbook, a notebook computer, a personal computer, a wirelesssensor, consumer electronics, a wearable device such as a smart watch orsmart clothing, a medical or eHealth device, a robot, industrialequipment, a drone, a vehicle such as a car, truck, train, or airplane,and the like.

The communications system 100 may also include abase station 114 a and abase station 114 b. Base stations 114 a may be any type of deviceconfigured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102 a,102 b, and 102 c to facilitate access to one or more communicationnetworks, such as the core network 106/107/109, the Internet 110, and/orthe other networks 112. Base stations 114 b may be any type of deviceconfigured to wiredly and/or wirelessly interface with at least one ofthe RRHs (remote radio heads) 118 a, 118 b and/or TRPs (transmission andreception points) 119 a, 119 b to facilitate access to one or morecommunication networks, such as the core network 106/107/109, theInternet 110, and/or the other networks 112. RRHs 118 a, 118 b may beany type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least oneof the WTRUs 102 c, to facilitate access to one or more communicationnetworks, such as the core network 106/107/109, the Internet 110, and/orthe other networks 112. TRPs 119 a, 119 b may be any type of deviceconfigured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102 d,to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as thecore network 106/107/109, the Internet 110, and/or the other networks112. By way of example, the base stations 114 a, 114 b may be a basetransceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, an eNode B, a Home Node B, a HomeeNode B, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, andthe like. While the base stations 114 a, 114 b are each depicted as asingle element, it will be appreciated that the base stations 114 a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and/or networkelements.

The base station 114 a may be part of the RAN 103/104/105, which mayalso include other base stations and/or network elements (not shown),such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller(RNC), relay nodes, etc. The base station 114 b may be part of the RAN103 b/104 b/105 b, which may also include other base stations and/ornetwork elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC) aradio network controller (RNC), relay nodes, etc. The base station 114 amay be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals within aparticular geographic region, which may be referred to as a cell (notshown). The base station 114 b may be configured to transmit and/orreceive wired and/or wireless signals within a particular geographicregion, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). The cell mayfurther be divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associatedwith the base station 114 a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, inan embodiment, the base station 114 a may include three transceivers,e.g., one for each sector of the cell. In an embodiment, the basestation 114 a may employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO)technology and, therefore, may utilize multiple transceivers for eachsector of the cell.

The base stations 114 a may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, and 102 c over an air interface 115/116/117, which may beany suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF),microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, cmWave,mmWave, etc.). The air interface 115/116/117 may be established usingany suitable radio access technology (RAT).

The base stations 114 b may communicate with one or more of the RRHs 118a, 118 b and/or TRPs 119 a, 119 b over a wired or air interface 115b/116 b/117 b, which may be any suitable wired (e.g., cable, opticalfiber, etc.) or wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF),microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, cmWave,mmWave, etc.). The air interface 115 b/116 b/117 b may be establishedusing any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

The RRHs 118 a, 118 b and/or TRPs 119 a, 119 b may communicate with oneor more of the WTRUs 102 c, and 102 d over an air interface 115 c/116c/117 c, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g.,radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV),visible light, cmWave, mmWave, etc.). The air interface 115 c/116 c/117c may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

More specifically, as noted above, the communications system 100 may bea multiple access system and may employ one or more channel accessschemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. Forexample, the base station 114 a in the RAN 103/104/105 and the WTRUs 102a, 102 b, 102 c, or RRHs 118 a, 118 b and TRPs 119 a, 119 b in the RAN103 b/104 b/105 b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102 d, may implement a radiotechnology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), which may establish the air interface115/116/117 or 115 c/116 c/117 c respectively using wideband CDMA(WCDMA). WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High-SpeedPacket Access (HSPA) and/or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may includeHigh-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and/or High-Speed UplinkPacket Access (HSUPA).

In an embodiment, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c, or RRHs 118 a, 118 b and TRPs 119 a, 119 b in the RAN 103 b/104 b/105b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102 d, may implement a radio technology such asEvolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish theair interface 115/116/117 or 115 c/116 c/117 c respectively using LongTerm Evolution (LTE) and/or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). In the future, the airinterface 115/116/117 may implement 3GPP NR technology.

In an embodiment, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c, or RRHs 118 a, 118 b and TRPs 119 a, 119 b in the RAN 103 b/104 b/105b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102 d, may implement radio technologies such asIEEE 802.16 (e.g., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1×, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard 2000(IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856),Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates forGSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and the like.

The base station 114 c in FIG. 20 may be a wireless router, Home Node B,Home eNode B, or access point, for example, and may utilize any suitableRAT for facilitating wireless connectivity in a localized area, such asa place of business, a home, a vehicle, a campus, and the like. In anembodiment, the base station 114 c and the WTRUs 102 e, may implement aradio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establish a wireless local areanetwork (WLAN). In an embodiment, the base station 114 c and the WTRUs102 d, may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.15 to establisha wireless personal area network (WPAN). In yet an embodiment, the basestation 114 c and the WTRUs 102 e, may utilize a cellular-based RAT(e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, etc.) to establish a picocellor femtocell. As shown in FIG. 20 , the base station 114 b may have adirect connection to the Internet 110. Thus, the base station 114 c maynot be required to access the Internet 110 via the core network106/107/109.

The RAN 103/104/105 and/or RAN 103 b/104 b/105 b may be in communicationwith the core network 106/1071109, which may be any type of networkconfigured to provide voice, data, applications, and/or voice overinternet protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102 a, 102b, 102 c, 102 d. For example, the core network 106/107/109 may providecall control, billing services, mobile location-based services, pre-paidcalling, Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and/or performhigh-level security functions, such as user authentication.

Although not shown in FIG. 20 , it will be appreciated that the RAN1031104/105 and/or RAN 103 b/104 b/105 b and/or the core network106/107/109 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANsthat employ the same RAT as the RAN 103/1041105 and/or RAN 103 b/104b/105 b or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connectedto the RAN 103/104/105 and/or RAN 103 b/104 b/105 b, which may beutilizing an E-UTRA radio technology, the core network 106/107/109 mayalso be in communication with another RAN (not shown) employing a GSMradio technology.

The core network 106/107/109 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs102 a. 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, 102 e to access the PSTN 108, the Internet110, and/or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may includecircuit-switched telephone networks that provide plain old telephoneservice (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system ofinterconnected computer networks and devices that use commoncommunication protocols, such as the transmission control protocol(TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) and the internet protocol (1P) inthe TCP/IP internet protocol suite. The networks 112 may include wiredor wireless communications networks owned and/or operated by otherservice providers. For example, the networks 112 may include anothercore network connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the sameRAT as the RAN 103/104/105 and/or RAN 103 b/104 b/105 or a differentRAT.

Some or all of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d in thecommunications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities, e.g., theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, and 102 e may include multipletransceivers for communicating with different wireless networks overdifferent wireless links. For example, the WTRU 102 e shown in FIG. 20may be configured to communicate with the base station 114 a, which mayemploy a cellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114c, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram of an example apparatus or device configuredfor wireless communications in accordance with the embodimentsillustrated herein, such as for example, a WTRU 102. As shown in FIG. 21, the example WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, atransmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126, adisplay/touchpad/indicators 128, non-removable memory 130, removablememory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS)chipset 136, and other peripherals 138. It will be appreciated that theWTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elements whileremaining consistent with an embodiment. Also, embodiments contemplatethat the base stations 114 a and 114 b, and/or the nodes that basestations 114 a and 114 b may represent, such as but not limited totransceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, a site controller, an access point(AP), a home node-B, an evolved home node-B (eNodeB), a home evolvednode-B (HeNB), a home evolved node-B gateway, and proxy nodes, amongothers, may include some or all of the elements depicted in FIG. 21 anddescribed herein.

The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purposeprocessor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), aplurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in associationwith a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs)circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine,and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, dataprocessing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any otherfunctionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wirelessenvironment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120,which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While FIG. 21depicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separatecomponents, it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and thetransceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package orchip.

The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signalsto, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 115/116/117. For example, in an embodiment,the transmit/receive element 122 may be an antenna configured totransmit and/or receive RF signals. In an embodiment, thetransmit/receive Although not shown in FIG. 20 , it will be appreciatedthat the RAN 103/104/105 and/or the core network 106/107/109 may be indirect or indirect communication with other RANs that employ the sameRAT as the RAN 103/104/105 or a different RAT. For example, in additionto being connected to the RAN 103/104/105, which may be utilizing anE-UTRA radio technology, the core network 106/107/109 may also be incommunication with another RAN (not shown) employing a GSM radiotechnology.

The core network 106/107/109 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110,and/or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include circuit-switchedtelephone networks that provide plain old telephone service (POTS), TheInternet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computernetworks and devices that use common communication protocols, such asthe transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP)and the internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite.The networks 112 may include wired or wireless communications networksowned and/or operated by other service providers. For example, thenetworks 112 may include another core network connected to one or moreRANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 103/104/105 or adifferent RAT.

Some or all of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d in thecommunications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities, e.g., theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and 102 d may include multiple transceiversfor communicating with different wireless networks over differentwireless links. For example, the WTRU 102 c shown in FIG. 20 may beconfigured to communicate with the base station 114 a, which may employa cellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114 b,which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram of an example apparatus or device configuredfor wireless communications in accordance with the embodimentsillustrated herein, such as for example, a WTRU 102. As shown in FIG. 21, the example WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, atransmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126, adisplay/touchpad/indicators 128, non-removable memory 130, removablememory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS)chipset 136, and other peripherals 138. It will be appreciated that theWTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elements whileremaining consistent with an embodiment. Also, embodiments contemplatethat the base stations 114 a and 114 b, and/or the nodes that basestations 114 a and 114 b may represent, such as but not limited totransceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, a site controller, an access point(AP), a home node-B, an evolved home node-B (eNodeB), a home evolvednode-B (HeNB), a home evolved node-B gateway, and proxy nodes, amongothers, may include some or all of the elements depicted in FIG. 21 anddescribed herein.

The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purposeprocessor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), aplurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in associationwith a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs)circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine,and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, dataprocessing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any otherfunctionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wirelessenvironment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120,which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While FIG. 21depicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separatecomponents, it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and thetransceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package orchip.

The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signalsto, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 115/116/117. For example, in an embodiment,the transmit/receive element 122 may be an antenna configured totransmit and/or receive RF signals. In an embodiment, thetransmit/receive element 122 may be an emitter/detector configured totransmit and/or receive IR, UV, or visible light signals, for example.In yet an embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be configuredto transmit and receive both RF and light signals. It will beappreciated that the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured totransmit and/or receive any combination of wireless signals.

In addition, although the transmit/receive element 122 is depicted inFIG. 21 as a single element, the WTRU 102 may include any number oftransmit/receive elements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 mayemploy MIMO technology. Thus, in an embodiment, the WTRU 102 may includetwo or more transmit/receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) fortransmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface115/116/117.

The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate the signals that areto be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 122 and to demodulatethe signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122. Asnoted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, thetransceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as UTRA and IEEE 802.11, forexample.

The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to, and may receiveuser input data from, the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/orthe display/touchpad/indicators 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display(LCD) display unit or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit).The processor 118 may also output user data to the speaker/microphone124, the keypad 126, and/or the display/touchpad/indicators 128. Inaddition, the processor 118 may access information from, and store datain, any type of suitable memory, such as the non-removable memory 130and/or the removable memory 132. The non-removable memory 130 mayinclude random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk,or any other type of memory storage device. The removable memory 132 mayinclude a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, asecure digital (SD) memory card, and the like. In an embodiment, theprocessor 118 may access information from, and store data in, memorythat is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or ahome computer (not shown).

The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, and maybe configured to distribute and/or control the power to the othercomponents in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitabledevice for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 mayinclude one or more dry cell batteries, solar cells, fuel cells, and thelike.

The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which maybe configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude andlatitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In additionto, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS chipset 136, the WTRU102 may receive location information over the air interface 115/116/117from a base station (e.g., base stations 114 a, 114 b) and/or determineits location based on the timing of the signals being received from twoor more nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102may acquire location information by way of any suitablelocation-determination method while remaining consistent with anembodiment.

The processor 118 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, whichmay include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provideadditional features, functionality, and/or wired or wirelessconnectivity. For example, the peripherals 138 may include varioussensors such as an accelerometer, biometrics (e.g., finger print)sensors, an e-compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (forphotographs or video), a universal serial bus (USB) port or otherinterconnect interfaces, a vibration device, a television transceiver, ahands free headset, a Bluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM)radio unit, a digital music player, a media player, a video game playermodule, an Internet browser, and the like.

The WTRU 102 may be embodied in other apparatuses or devices, such as asensor, consumer electronics, a wearable device such as a smart watch orsmart clothing, a medical or eHealth device, a robot, industrialequipment, a drone, a vehicle such as a car, truck, train, or airplane.The WTRU 102 may connect to other components, modules, or systems ofsuch apparatuses or devices via one or more interconnect interfaces,such as an interconnect interface that may comprise one of theperipherals 138.

FIG. 22 is a system diagram of the RAN 103 and the core network 106according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 103 may employ aUTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and102 c over the air interface 115. The RAN 103 may also be incommunication with the core network 106. As shown in FIG. 22 , the RAN103 may include Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b, 140 c, which may each include oneor more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and102 c over the air interface 115. The Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b, 140 c mayeach be associated with a particular cell (not shown) within the RAN103. The RAN 103 may also include RNCs 142 a, 142 b. It will beappreciated that the RAN 103 may include any number of Node-Bs and RNCswhile remaining consistent with an embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 22 , the Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b may be in communicationwith the RNC 142 a. Additionally, the Node-B 140 c may be incommunication with the RNC 142 b. The Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b, 140 c maycommunicate with the respective RNCs 142 a, 142 b via an Iub interface.The RNCs 142 a, 142 b may be in communication with one another via anIur interface. Each of the RNCs 142 a, 142 b may be configured tocontrol the respective Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b, 140 c to which it isconnected. In addition, each of the RNCs 142 a, 142 b may be configuredto carry out or support other functionality, such as outer loop powercontrol, load control, admission control, packet scheduling, handovercontrol, macro-diversity, security functions, data encryption, and thelike.

The core network 106 shown in FIG. 22 may include a media gateway (MGW)144, a mobile switching center (MSC) 146, a serving GPRS support node(SGSN) 148, and/or a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) 150. While each ofthe foregoing elements are depicted as part of the core network 106, itwill be appreciated that any one of these elements may be owned and/oroperated by an entity other than the core network operator.

The RNC 142 a in the RAN 103 may be connected to the MSC 146 in the corenetwork 106 via an IuCS interface. The MSC 146 may be connected to theMOW 144. The MSC 146 and the MGW 144 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, tofacilitate communications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c andtraditional land-line communications devices.

The RNC 142 a in the RAN 103 may also be connected to the SGSN 148 inthe core network 106 via an IuPS interface. The SGSN 148 may beconnected to the GGSN 150. The SGSN 148 and the GGSN 150 may provide theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to packet-switched networks, suchas the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between and the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c and IP-enabled devices.

As noted above, the core network 106 may also be connected to thenetworks 112, which may include other wired or wireless networks thatare owned and/or operated by other service providers.

FIG. 23 is a system diagram of the RAN 104 and the core network 107according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 104 may employ anE-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and102 c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be incommunication with the core network 107.

The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160 s, 160 b, 160 c, though it will beappreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs whileremaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c over the air interface 116. In an embodiment,the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may implement MIMO technology. Thus,the eNode-B 160 a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmitwireless signals to, and receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102 a.

Each of the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, and 160 c may be associated with aparticular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radioresource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of usersin the uplink and/or downlink, and the like. As shown in FIG. 23 , theeNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may communicate with one another over an X2interface.

The core network 107 shown in FIG. 23 may include a mobility managementgateway (MME) 162, a serving gateway 164, and a packet data network(PDN) gateway 166. While each of the foregoing elements are depicted aspart of the core network 107, it will be appreciated that any one ofthese elements may be owned and/or operated by an entity other than thecore network operator.

The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, and160 c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a controlnode. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticatingusers of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, bearer activation/deactivation,selecting a particular serving gateway during an initial attach of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and the like. The MME 162 may also provide acontrol plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs(not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM or WCDMA.

The serving gateway 164 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160 a,160 b, and 160 c in the RAN 104 via the SI interface. The servinggateway 164 may generally route and forward user data packets to/fromthe WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c. The serving gateway 164 may also performother functions, such as anchoring user planes during inter-eNode Bhandovers, triggering paging when downlink data is available for theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, managing and storing contexts of the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and the like.

The serving gateway 164 may also be connected to the PDN gateway 166,which may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access topacket-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitatecommunications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and IP-enableddevices.

The core network 107 may facilitate communications with other networks.For example, the core network 107 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, tofacilitate communications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c andtraditional land-line communications devices. For example, the corenetwork 107 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g.,an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interfacebetween the core network 107 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the corenetwork 107 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c with access tothe networks 112, which may include other wired or wireless networksthat are owned and/or operated by other service providers.

FIG. 24 is a system diagram of the RAN 105 and the core network 109according to an embodiment. The RAN 105 may be an access service network(ASN) that employs IEEE 802.16 radio technology to communicate with theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c over the air interface 117. As will befurther discussed below, the communication links between the differentfunctional entities of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b. 102 c, the RAN 105, andthe core network 109 may be defined as reference points.

As shown in FIG. 24 , the RAN 105 may include base stations 180 a, 180b, 180 c, and an ASN gateway 182, though it will be appreciated that theRAN 105 may include any number of base stations and ASN gateways whileremaining consistent with an embodiment. The base stations 180 a, 180 b,180 c may each be associated with a particular cell in the RAN 105 andmay include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, and 102 c over the air interface 117. In an embodiment,the base stations 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may implement MIMO technology.Thus, the base station 180 a, for example, may use multiple antennas totransmit wireless signals to, and receive wireless signals from, theWTRU 102 a. The base stations 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may also providemobility management functions, such as handoff triggering, tunnelestablishment, radio resource management, traffic classification,quality of service (QoS) policy enforcement, and the like. The ASNgateway 182 may serve as a traffic aggregation point and may beresponsible for paging, caching of subscriber profiles, routing to thecore network 109, and the like.

The air interface 117 between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and the RAN105 may be defined as an R1 reference point that implements the IEEE802.16 specification. In addition, each of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and102 c may establish a logical interface (not shown) with the corenetwork 109. The logical interface between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 cand the core network 109 may be defined as an R2 reference point, whichmay be used for authentication, authorization, IP host configurationmanagement, and/or mobility management.

The communication link between each of the base stations 180 a, 180 b,and 180 c may be defined as an R8 reference point that includesprotocols for facilitating WTRU handovers and the transfer of databetween base stations. The communication link between the base stations180 a. 180 b, 180 c and the ASN gateway 182 may be defined as an R6reference point. The R6 reference point may include protocols forfacilitating mobility management based on mobility events associatedwith each of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c.

As shown in FIG. 24 , the RAN 105 may be connected to the core network109. The communication link between the RAN 105 and the core network 109may defined as an R3 reference point that includes protocols forfacilitating data transfer and mobility management capabilities, forexample. The core network 109 may include a mobile IP home agent(MIP-HA) 184, an authentication, authorization, accounting (AAA) server186, and a gateway 188. While each of the foregoing elements aredepicted as part of the core network 109, it will be appreciated thatany one of these elements may be owned and/or operated by an entityother than the core network operator.

The MIP-HA may be responsible for IP address management, and may enablethe WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c to roam between different ASNs and/ordifferent core networks. The MIP-HA 184 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102b, and 102 c with access to packet-switched networks, such as theInternet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102b, 102 c, and IP-enabled devices. The AAA server 186 may be responsiblefor user authentication and for supporting user services. The gateway188 may facilitate interworking with other networks. For example, thegateway 188 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c with access tocircuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitatecommunications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c and traditionalland-line communications devices. In addition, the gateway 188 mayprovide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c with access to the networks112, which may include other wired or wireless networks that are ownedand/or operated by other service providers.

Although not shown in FIG. 24 , it will be appreciated that the RAN 105may be connected to other ASNs and the core network 109 may be connectedto other core networks. The communication link between the RAN 105 theother ASNs may be defined as an R4 reference point, which may includeprotocols for coordinating the mobility of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and102 c between the RAN 105 and the other ASNs. The communication linkbetween the core network 109 and the other core networks may be definedas an R5 reference, which may include protocols for facilitatinginterworking between home core networks and visited core networks.

The core network entities described herein and illustrated in FIGS. 20,22, 23 , and 24 are identified by the names given to those entities incertain existing 3GPP specifications, but it is understood that in thefuture those entities and functionalities may be identified by othernames and certain entities or functions may be combined in futurespecifications published by 3GPP, including future 3GPP NRspecifications. Thus, the particular network entities andfunctionalities described and illustrated in FIGS. 20-24 are provided byway of example only, and it is understood that the subject matterdisclosed and claimed herein may be embodied or implemented in anysimilar communication system, whether presently defined or defined inthe future.

FIG. 25 is a block diagram of an example computing system 90 in whichone or more apparatuses of the communications networks illustrated inFIGS. 20, 22, 23, and 24 may be embodied, such as certain nodes orfunctional entities in the RAN 103/104/105, Core Network 106/107/109,PSTN 108, Internet 110, or Other Networks 112. Computing system 90 maycomprise a computer or server and may be controlled primarily bycomputer readable instructions, which may be in the form of software,wherever, or by whatever means such software is stored or accessed. Suchcomputer readable instructions may be executed within a processor 91, tocause computing system 90 to do work. The processor 91 may be a generalpurpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventionalprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSPcore, a controller, a microcontroller, Application Specific IntegratedCircuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs) circuits, anyother type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, and the like.The processor 91 may perform signal coding, data processing, powercontrol, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality thatenables the computing system 90 to operate in a communications network.Coprocessor 81 is an optional processor, distinct from main processor91, that may perform additional functions or assist processor 91.Processor 91 and/or coprocessor 81 may receive, generate, and processdata related to the methods and apparatuses disclosed herein.

In operation, processor 91 fetches, decodes, and executes instructions,and transfers information to and from other resources via the computingsystem's main data-transfer path, system bus 80. Such a system busconnects the components in computing system 90 and defines the mediumfor data exchange. System bus 80 typically includes data lines forsending data, address lines for sending addresses, and control lines forsending interrupts and for operating the system bus. An example of sucha system bus 80 is the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus.

Memories coupled to system bus 80 include random access memory (RAM) 82and read only memory (ROM) 93. Such memories include circuitry thatallows information to be stored and retrieved. ROMs 93 generally containstored data that cannot easily be modified. Data stored in RAM 2 may beread or changed by processor 91 or other hardware devices. Access to RAM82 and/or ROM 93 may be controlled by memory controller 92. Memorycontroller 92 may provide an address translation function thattranslates virtual addresses into physical addresses as instructions areexecuted. Memory controller 92 may also provide a memory protectionfunction that isolates processes within the system and isolates systemprocesses from user processes. Thus, a program running in a first modemay access only memory mapped by its own process virtual address space;it cannot access memory within another process's virtual address spaceunless memory sharing between the processes has been set up.

In addition, computing system 90 may contain peripherals controller 83responsible for communicating instructions from processor 91 toperipherals, such as printer 94, keyboard 84, mouse 95, and disk drive85.

Display 86, which is controlled by display controller 96, is used todisplay visual output generated by computing system 90. Such visualoutput may include text, graphics, animated graphics, and video. Thevisual output may be provided in the form of a graphical user interface(GUI). Display 86 may be implemented with a CRT-based video display, anLCD-based flat-panel display, gas plasma-based flat-panel display, or atouch-panel. Display controller 96 includes electronic componentsrequired to generate a video signal that is sent to display 86.

Further, computing system 90 may contain communication circuitry, suchas, for example, a network adapter 97, that may be used to connectcomputing system 90 to an external communications network, such as theRAN 103/104/105, Core Network 106/107/109, PSTN 108, Internet 110, orOther Networks 112 of FIGS. 20-24 to enable the computing system 90 tocommunicate with other nodes or functional entities of those networks.The communication circuitry, alone or in combination with the processor91, may be used to perform the transmitting and receiving steps ofcertain apparatuses, nodes, or functional entities described herein.

It is understood that any or all of the apparatuses, systems, methodsand processes described herein may be embodied in the form of computerexecutable instructions (e.g., program code) stored on acomputer-readable storage medium which instructions, when executed by aprocessor, such as processors 118 or 91, cause the processor to performand/or implement the systems, methods and processes described herein.Specifically, any of the steps, operations, or functions describedherein may be implemented in the form of such computer executableinstructions, executing on the processor of an apparatus or computingsystem configured for wireless and/or wired network communications.Computer readable storage media include volatile and nonvolatile,removable and non-removable media implemented in any non-transitory(e.g., tangible or physical) method or technology for storage ofinformation, but such computer readable storage media do not includessignals. Computer readable storage media include, but are not limitedto, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM,digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magneticcassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices, or any other tangible or physical medium which may beused to store the desired information and which may be accessed by acomputing system.

APPENDIX EXAMPLE A NR MeasGapConfig Information Element -- ASN1STARTMeasGapConfig ::= SEQUENCE {  gapOffset CHOICE {   gp0  INTEGER (0..39),  gp1  INTEGER (0..79),   gp2  INTEGER (0..159),   gp3  INTEGER (0..39),  gp4  INTEGER (0..79),   gp5  INTEGER (0..159),   gp6  INTEGER (0..39),  gp7  INTEGER (0..79),   gp8  INTEGER (0..159)  }, alignWithBurstSeries  BOOLEAN,  OPTIONAL  incrementalGap  BOOLEANOPTIONAL } -- ASN1STOP

APPENDIX EXAMPLE B NR MeasurementReport Message -- ASN1STARTMeasurementReport ::= SEQUENCE {  measurementReport  MeasResults } --ASN1STOP

APPENDIX EXAMPLE C NR MeasResults Information Element -- ASN1STARTMeasResults ::= SEQUENCE {  measId MeasId,  measResultPCell  SEQUENCE {  rsrpResult  RSRP-Range,   rsrqResult  RSRQ-Range,   csi-rsrpResult  CSI-RSRP-Range  OPTIONAL,   csi-rsrqResult   CSI-RSRQ-Range  OPTIONAL,  beamMeasResultsList    BeamMeasResultsList    OPTIONAL  }, measResultNeighCells  CHOICE {   measResultsListNR   MeasResultsListNR,  measResultListEUTRA    MeasResultListEUTRA,   measResultListUTRA  MeasResultListUTRA,   measResultListGERAN    MeasResultListGERAN,  measResultsCDMA2000    MeasResultsCDMA2000,   ...  }, OPTIONAL,  {other measurements } } MeasResultListNR ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..maxCellReport)) OF MeasResultNR MeasResultNR ::= SEQUENCE { physCellId PhysCellId,  cgi-Info SEQUENCE {   cellGlobalId CellGlobalIdEUTRA,   trackingAreaCode   TrackingAreaCode,  plmn-IdentityList   PLMN-IdentityList2   OPTIONAL  } OPTIONAL, measResult SEQUENCE {   rsrpResult  RSRP-Range  OPTIONAL,   rsrqResult RSRQ-Range  OPTIONAL,   csi-rsrpResult   CSI-RSRP-Range  OPTIONAL,  csi-rsrqResult   CSI-RSRQ-Range  OPTIONAL,   beamMeasResultsList   BeamMeasResultsList    OPTIONAL   { other measurements }  } }MeasCSI-RS-Id-NR ::= INTEGER (1..maxCSI-RS-Meas-NR) BeamMeasResultListNR::=  SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxBeamReport)) OF BeamMeasResult BeamMeasResult::= CHOICE {  beamMeas SEQUENCE {   beamId  INTEGER(1..maxSSBLocks),  rsrpResult  RSRP-Range, OPTIONAL,   rsrqResult  RSRQ-Range, OPTIONAL }  csiBeamMeas  SEQUENCE {   beamId  MeasCSI-RS-Id-NR),  csi-rsrpResult   CSI-RSRP-Range,  OPTIONAL,   csi-rsrqResult  CSI-RSRQ-Range,  OPTIONAL  } } maxBeamReport INTEGER ::= 32 -- Maximumnumber of reported beams maxCSI-RS-Meas-NR  INTEGER ::= 96 -- Maximumnumber of entries in the CSI-RS list -- in a measurement objectmaxSSBlocks  INTEGER ::= 64 -- Maximum number of SS blocks in an SSburst set -- ASN1STOP

APPENDIX EXAMPLE D MeasConfig Information Elements -- ASN1STARTMeasConfig ::= SEQUENCE {  -- Measurement objects measObjectToRemoveList  MeasObjectToRemoveList   OPTIONAL, -- Need ON measObjectToAddModList  MeasObjectToAddModList   OPTIONAL, -- Need ON -- Reporting configurations  reportConfigToRemoveList ReportConfigToRemoveList   OPTIONAL, -- Need ON reportConfigToAddModList  ReportConfigToAddModList   OPTIONAL, -- NeedON  -- Measurement identities  measIdToRemoveList MeasIdToRemoveListOPTIONAL, -- Need ON  measIdToAddModList MeasIdToAddModList OPTIONAL, --Need ON  -- Other parameters  quantityConfig QuantityConfig OPTIONAL, --Need ON  measGapConfig  MeasGapConfig  s-Measure  RSRP-Range  OPTIONAL,-- Need ON  s-Measure-beams INTEGER(1..32) OPTIONAL  csi-s-Measure CSI-RSRP-Range   OPTIONAL,  csi-s-Measure-beams  INTEGER(1..32) OPTIONAL  preRegistrationInfoHRPD  PreRegistrationInfoHRPD   OPTIONAL,-- Need OP  speedStatePars CHOICE {   release NULL,   setup  SEQUENCE {   mobilityStateParameters    MobilityStateParameters,   timeToTrigger-SF   SpeedStateScaleFactors   }  } OPTIONAL, -- Need ON { other parameters } } -- ASN1STOP

APPENDIX EXAMPLE E QuantityConfig Information Element -- ASN1STARTQuantityConfig ::= SEQUENCE {  quantityConfigNR QuantityConfigNROPTIONAL, -- Need ON  quantityConfigEUTRA  QuantityConfigEUTRA  OPTIONAL, -- Need ON  quantityConfigUTRA QuantityConfigUTRA OPTIONAL,-- Need ON  quantityConfigGERAN  QuantityConfigGERAN   OPTIONAL, -- NeedON  quantityConfigCDMA2000  QuantityConfigCDMA2000   OPTIONAL, -- NeedON } QuantityConfigNR ::= SEQUENCE {  -- Cell quality filter filterCoefficientRSRP FilterCoefficient  DEFAULT fc4, filterCoefficientRSRQ FilterCoefficient  DEFAULT fc4, csi-filterCoefficientRSRP  FilterCoefficient    OPTIONAL, csi-filterCoefficientRSRQ  FilterCoefficient    OPTIONAL,  -- Beamfilter  filterCoefficientBeamRSRP  FilterCoefficient    OPTIONAL, filterCoefficientBeamSRQ  FilterCoefficient    OPTIONAL csi-filterCoefficientBeamRSRP  FilterCoefficient    OPTIONAL, csi-filterCoefficientBeamRSRQ  FilterCoefficient    OPTIONAL } --ASN1STOP

APPENDIX EXAMPLE F MeasObjectNR Information Element -- ASN1STARTMeasObjectNR ::= SEQUENCE {  carrierFreq  ARFCN-ValueEUTRA, allowedMeasBandwidth  AllowedMeasBandwidth,  presenceAntennaPort1 PresenceAntennaPort1,  neighCellConfig  NeighCellConfig,  offsetFreqQ-OffsetRange DEFAULT dB0,  numBeamsForCellQuality   INTEGER(1..16) OPTIONAL,  beamThreshForCellQuality   RSRP-Range OPTIONAL, numBeamsForReporting  INTEGER(1..16) OPTIONAL,  beamThreshforReporting  RSRP-Range OPTIONAL,  -- Cell list  cellsToRemoveList  CellIndexList OPTIONAL, -- Need ON  cellsToAddModList  CellsToAddModList OPTIONAL, --Need ON  -- Black list  blackCellsToRemovelist   CellIndexList OPTIONAL,-- Need ON  blackCellsToAddModList   BlackCellsToAddModList   OPTIONAL, -- Need ON  cellForWhichToReportCGI   PhysCellId OPTIONAL, -- Need ON { other parameters } }

APPENDIX EXAMPLE G MeasObjectToAddModList Information Element --ASN1START MeasObjectToAddModList ::=  SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxObjectId))OF MeasObjectToAddMod MeasObjectToAddMod ::= SEQUENCE {  measObjectIdMeasObjectId,  measObject CHOICE {   measObjectNR  MeasObjectNR,  measObjectEUTRA   MeasObjectEUTRA,   measObjectUTRA   MeasObjectUTRA,  measObjectGERAN   MeasObjectGERAN,   measObjectCDMA2000  MeasObjectCDMA2000,   measObjectWLAN-r13   MeasObjectWLAN-r13,  measObjectSL-r14   MeasObjectSL-r14  } } -- ASN1STOP

What is claimed:
 1. A first apparatus comprising a processor, a memory,and communication circuitry, the first apparatus being capable ofconnecting to a communications network via its communication circuitry,the first apparatus further comprising computer-executable instructionsstored in the memory of the first apparatus which, when executed by theprocessor of the first apparatus, cause the first apparatus to: receive,from a second apparatus, a first configuration, the first configurationpertaining to measurements of a first set of beams in one or more cells,wherein the first configuration comprises a measurement type for beammeasurements, a first threshold for a beam-specific measurement result,a second threshold for a cell-specific measurement result, parametersfor layer 3 (L3) filtering and measurement reporting criterion, whereinthe measurement type indicates the beam measurements should be performedbased on a synchronization signal (SS) block or channel stateinformation reference signal (CSI-RS), wherein the parameters for L3filtering include a parameter of a L3 filtering coefficient to be usedin a L3 beam filtering and a L3 cell filtering, the L3 filteringcoefficient being a parameter k used in: F_(n)=(1−a)·F_(n−1)+a·M_(n),and the L3 beam filtering being applied to the first set of beams andthe L3 cell filtering being applied to an output of a second set ofbeams extracted from the first set of beams based on the threshold forbeam-specific measurements, and wherein the second threshold correspondsto a quality threshold of a primary cell to determine if a measurementon other cells is required and configures separate parameters for SSblock and CSI-RS; and receive, from the second apparatus, the SS blockor CSI-RS to perform the beam measurements based on the firstconfiguration; and transmit, to the second apparatus, a measurementreport including a cell-specific measurement result of a first cell, thefirst cell being selected based on the second threshold after the L3cell filtering.
 2. The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the secondthreshold is based on a reference signal received power for the primarycell.
 3. The first apparatus of claim 2, wherein the second thresholdcomprises a SS block-based threshold and a CSI-RS based threshold. 4.The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the measurement report furtherincludes a beam-specific measurement result generated based on the L3beam filtering.
 5. The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the firstconfiguration further comprises a reporting criterion indicating aplurality of trigger events including a trigger event that an averagevalue or weighted sum of trigger quantity of beams of the primary cellbecomes worse than a third threshold.
 6. The first apparatus of claim 5,wherein the plurality of trigger events further includes a trigger eventthat an average value or weighted sum of trigger quantity of beams of aneighbor cell becomes offset better than the primary cell.
 7. A secondapparatus comprising a processor, a memory, and communication circuitry,the second apparatus being capable of connecting to a communicationsnetwork via its communication circuitry, the second apparatus furthercomprising computer-executable instructions stored in the memory of thesecond apparatus which, when executed by the processor of the secondapparatus, cause the second apparatus to: transmit, to a firstapparatus, a first configuration, the first configuration pertaining tomeasurements of a first set of beams in one or more cells, wherein thefirst configuration comprises a measurement type for beam measurements,a first threshold for a beam-specific measurement result, a secondthreshold for a cell-specific measurement result, parameters for layer 3(L3) filtering and measurement reporting criterion, wherein themeasurement type indicates the beam measurements should be performedbased on a synchronization signal (SS) block or channel stateinformation reference signal (CSI-RS), wherein the parameters for L3filtering include a parameter of a L3 filtering coefficient to be usedin a L3 beam filtering and a L3 cell filtering, the L3 filteringcoefficient being a parameter k used in: F_(n)=(1−a)·F_(n−1)+a·M_(n),and the L3 beam filtering being applied to the first set of beams andthe L3 cell filtering being applied to an output of a second set ofbeams extracted from the first set of beams based on the threshold forbeam-specific measurements, and wherein the second threshold correspondsto a quality threshold of a primary cell to determine if a measurementon other cells is required and configures separate parameters for SSblock and CSI-RS; transmit, to the first apparatus, the SS block orCSI-RS to perform the beam measurements based on the firstconfiguration; and receive, from the first apparatus, a measurementreport including a cell-specific measurement result of a first cell, thefirst cell being selected based on the second threshold after the L3cell filtering.
 8. The second apparatus of claim 7, wherein the secondthreshold is based on a reference signal received power for the primarycell.
 9. The second apparatus of claim 8, wherein the second thresholdcomprises a SS block-based threshold and a CSI-RS based threshold. 10.The second apparatus of claim 7, wherein the measurement report furtherincludes a beam-specific measurement result generated based on the L3beam filtering.
 11. The second apparatus of claim 7, wherein the firstconfiguration further comprises a reporting criterion indicating aplurality of trigger events including a trigger event that an averagevalue or weighted sum of trigger quantity of beams of the primary cellbecomes worse than a third threshold.
 12. The second apparatus of claim11, wherein the plurality of trigger events further includes a triggerevent that an average value or weighted sum of trigger quantity of beamsof a neighbor cell becomes offset better than the primary cell.
 13. Amethod for a network node, the method comprising: transmitting, to afirst apparatus, a first configuration, the first configurationpertaining to measurements of a first set of beams in one or more cells;wherein the first configuration comprises a measurement type for beammeasurements, a first threshold for a beam-specific measurement result,a second threshold for a cell-specific measurement result, parametersfor layer 3 (L3) filtering and measurement reporting criterion, whereinthe measurement type indicates the beam measurements should be performedbased on a synchronization signal (SS) block or channel stateinformation reference signal (CSI-RS), wherein the parameters for L3filtering include a parameter of a L3 filtering coefficient to be usedin a L3 beam filtering and a L3 cell filtering, the L3 filteringcoefficient being a parameter k used in: F_(n)=(1−a)·F_(n−1)+a·M_(n),and the L3 beam filtering being applied to the first set of beams andthe L3 cell filtering being applied to an output of a second set ofbeams extracted from the first set of beams based the threshold forbeam-specific measurements, and wherein the second threshold correspondsto a quality threshold of a primary cell to determine if a measurementon other cells is required and configures separate parameters for SSblock and CSI-RS; transmitting, to the first apparatus, the SS block orCSI-RS to perform the beam measurements based on the firstconfiguration; and receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurementreport including a cell-specific measurement result of a first cell, thefirst cell being selected based on the second threshold after the L3cell filtering.
 14. The first apparatus of claim 13, wherein the secondthreshold is based on a reference signal received power for the primarycell.
 15. The first apparatus of claim 14, wherein the second thresholdcomprises a SS block-based threshold and a CSI-RS based threshold. 16.The first apparatus of claim 13, wherein the measurement report furtherincludes a beam-specific measurement result generated based on the L3beam filtering.
 17. The first apparatus of claim 13, wherein the firstconfiguration further comprises a reporting criterion indicating aplurality of trigger events including a trigger event that an averagevalue or weighted sum of trigger quantity of beams of the primary cellbecomes worse than a third threshold.
 18. The first apparatus of claim17, wherein the plurality of trigger events further includes a triggerevent that an average value or weighted sum of trigger quantity of beamsof a neighbor cell becomes offset better than the primary cell.